Last updated on December 23rd, 2018
Uses for salt go beyond that of baking chemistry, food flavor, and food preservation, and has a number of other additional uses…
By the way, we love this salt!
Sherpa Pink Himalayan Salt
Remove Rust
Make a paste using 6 tablespoons of Morton® Salt and 2 tablespoons lemon juice. Apply paste to rusted area with a dry cloth and rub. Rinse thoroughly and dry.
Perk Up Coffee Flavor
Add a pinch of Salt to the coffee in the basket of your coffeemaker. This will improve the coffee’s flavor by helping to remove some of the acid taste.
Dispose of Disposal Odor
To help remove odors from garbage disposals, pour 1/2 cup of Salt directly into the garbage disposal. By running the disposal following manufacturer’s directions, you’ll send those odors down the drain.
Eliminate Fish Odors
Removing fish odor from your hands is simple with Salt. Just rub your hands with a lemon wedge dipped in salt, then rinse with water.
Cut Cutting Board Odors
To help cut odors off of your wooden cutting board, simply pour a generous amount of Salt directly on the board. Rub lightly with a damp cloth. Wash in warm, sudsy water.
Soothe Sore Throats
To alleviate the discomfort of a mild sore throat, gargle several times daily with a mixture of 1/4 teaspoon Salt and 1/2 cup warm water*. It’s like taking a liquid lozenge.
Soak Your Feet
To prepare a salt water bath, pour 6 quarts (1-1/2 gallons) warm water in a large basin. Mix in 1/4 cup Salt and 1/4 cup baking soda. Soak feet for up to 15 minutes.
Boiling Water
Salt added to water makes the water boil at a higher temperature, thus reducing cooking time (it does not make the water boil faster).
Peeling eggs
Eggs boiled in salted water peel more easily.
Testing egg freshness
Place the egg in a cup of water to which two teaspoonfuls of salt has been added. A fresh egg sinks; a doubter will float.
Cleaning greasy pans
The greasiest iron pan will wash easily if you use a little salt in it and wipe with paper.
Cleaning stained cups
Rubbing with salt will remove stubborn tea or coffee stains from cups.
Removing pinfeathers
To remove pinfeathers easily from a chicken, rub the chicken skin with salt first.
Preventing mold
To prevent mold on cheese, wrap it in a cloth dampened with saltwater before refrigerating.
Keeping milk fresh
Adding a pinch of salt to milk will keep it fresh longer.
Relieving bee stings
If stung, immediately wet the spot and cover with salt to relieve the pain.
Removing soot
Occasionally throw a handful of salt on the flames in your fireplace; it will help loosen soot from the chimney and salt makes a bright yellow flame.
Keeping cut flowers fresh
A dash of salt added to the water in a flower vase will keep cut flowers fresh longer.
Keeping patios weed-free
If weeds or unwanted grass come up between patio bricks or blocks, carefully spread salt between the bricks and blocks, then sprinkle with water or wait for rain to wet it down.
Killing poison ivy
Mix three pounds of salt with a gallon of soapy water and apply to leaves and stems with a sprayer.
Deodorizing shoes
Sprinkling a little salt in canvas shoes occasionally will take up the moisture and help remove odors.
Save the bottom of your oven
If a pie or casserole bubbles over in the oven, put a handful of salt on top of the spill. It won’t smoke and smell, and it will bake into a crust that makes the baked-on mess much easier to clean when it has cooled.
Clean a gunky iron bottom
Sprinkle a little salt on a piece of paper and run the hot iron over it to remove rough, sticky spots.
Deter ants
Sprinkle salt at doorways, window sills and anywhere else ants sneak into your house. Ants don’t like to walk on salt.
Tame a wild barbeque
Toss a bit of salt on flames from food dripping in barbecue grills to reduce the flames and calm the smoke without cooling the coals (like water does).
Clean teeth
Use one part fine salt to two parts baking soda–dip your toothbrush in the mix and brush as usual.
Scaling fish
Soak fish in salt water before descaling; the scales will come off easier.
Non-stick pancakes
Rub salt on your pancake griddle and your flapjacks won’t stick.
Clothespins
Boil clothespins in salt water before using them and they will last longer.
Melt snow and ice
Sprinkle salt on snow or ice to melt away.
Clean cast iron skillets
Sprinkle salt in skillet and scrub.
Remove onion smell from hands
Just wet hands with water, sprinkle salt on your wet hands, rub hands together as if washing them, and rinse…smell is gone.
Snails in garden
Sprinkle salt to kill snails.
Add your own uses for salt:
Most of these I already knew, but I question the salt removing rust. The salt on the roads seem to create rust on my car:) Salt in the milk is a new one I’ve never heard of either.
The car thing is an example of over engineering. If you believe the environmentalists an aluminum can that costs less than a cent will last for generations in a landfill. Detroit engineers have figured out how to make a car costing thousands of dollars rust out a few days after the warranty ends.
#31 – Kill slugs near the garden. Stale beer also works.
Stale beer? Never heard of it.
Get a tuna can, bury in your garden so the rim is even with the ground surface, place near plants that slugs enjoy eating (anything really), fill the bottom with some beer. The slugs are attracted to the yeast in the beer I believe, when they go to take a drink they fall in. I guess you can fill a can over night which is pretty gross in the morning. However, if you do this often and early in the season you can almost eliminate any slug problems in the garden the rest of the year.
Ken I am a Chemical Engineer. Salt does not make water boil at a higher temperature. It makes it boil at a lower temperature. God bless.
This is true. I’ve always heard that the reason you add salt to the water you’re going to cook pasta in is because it cooks better at a higher temperature, so you want the water hotter before it boils.
I always used salt to boil something quicker, and when it boils at a lower temperature, you don’t have to wait so long to reach 212 degrees.
You probably know this too, salt added to water freezes at a lower temperature than 32 degrees too.
Salt water also melts at a lower temperature.
OMG, I get headaches reading some of these posts.
H2O at sea level boils at 212°F (100°C) it freezes at 32°f (0°C) if you dissolve “pure” and I repeat “PURE” salt in the “pure” H2O it will boil at a HIGHER temp, and freeze at a LOWER temp. Why do you think you put salt on an icy sidewalk to MELT the ice? Maybe to lower the freezing temp so it stays a liquid? Why do you put salt into water to RAISE the boiling temp to cook Paste and Eggs?
Knowledge is a wonderful thing when used correctly
NRP
Salt is so useful that without salt we will suffer a lo
I’ve had that egg trick work without salt. fresh eggs sink & dead ones float in my local tap water just fine
if your scalp feels like it needs a good scrub/if you have dandruff/if you have a build up from regular shampoos….
wet hair, apply shampoo, then pour few tsps. of salt on head/scalp. Rub vigorously with finger tips, till scalp feels “good”. Rinse well, rinsing off shampoo and salt. If using cream rinse, etc, apply as usual.
Scalp feels great after this.
Ken
Some very good suggestions, Thanks
A nice refreshing discussion from the last post LOL
I have a book called “Salted” from a research and adventurer, Salt has a very interesting history, and upbringing.
A place in Portland (among others)has a Salt Outlet that has literally hundreds of different salts from around the world. And yes I have to admit I spent a cpl of hundred bucks buying many different types. They are interesting to say the least.
FYI, toss the “Morton” salt OUT, it’s not really good for you, it has NO mineral value at all and the Iodine is actually a poison, look it up.
NRP
Hi, which brand of salt would you recommend to eat instead of Morton?
I heard of a salt water battery that can be made.
Lots of salt uses here, but one I use is a nasal spray with salt water for my wacky nerve in my nose or allergies that make my noise run.
Please don’t put salt on ground. It makes the ground sterile! I know you suggested only putting it in cracks in the sidewalk, but every little bit hurts. Think of the cumulative effect. Use a kettle of boiling water to kill weed tops and roots, PLEASE!
I believe pouring boiling water on the ground also makes the earth sterile but I get what you are saying about the use of salt.
Today I went to buy more sea salt that I use for the bath tub, to soak in. Some says it helps break up negative energies but for me it’s an amazing healing therapy for aches and pains. Love sea salt and would love to check out the salt outlet in Portland. Have to do a search online to see if there is one is nearer to home.
If you are trying to stop ants pepper will work better than salt. Think about how close you could get to a peppercorn half the size of your car.
Days of old, salt was used for money. This is where the term “salary” comes from.
Use salt to warm up your MREs. When we went to the field, we’d throw salt on top of the yukon stove before you laid your main meal packet down. The salt would prevent the MRE packet from having direct contact with the hot metal and keep it from melting the plastic film covering.
The most important use of salt is to prevent hyponatremia in our body. hyponatremia is caused by many factors, perhaps too many to list here, Low sodium results in low blood volume (shock) and death quickly follows. Understanding the need for salt intake is a discussion so long that I believe it is beyond the scope of this post. I mention it here only to alert readers to read about this in depth elsewhere so that you recognize the symptoms, cause and treatment In times of SHTF. This will save a life. Be well!
Ken, I’m surprised you left out corning. It’s a very old way of preserving meat by packing it in salt.
Salting the earth was one of the things victorious army did to the losers.
Crops wouldn’t grow. Sea salt is a wonderful thing but it’s advertising hype. All salt is sea salt. Just matters where it comes from, salt flats and salt mines are ancient sea beds. The big difference is the amount of pollution in them. A lot more nowadays. They make sea salt by evaporating ocean water in salt pans. These are big fields that are flooded and after the water evaporates the salt is bulldozed into piles. Leslie salt used to do this in Redwood City California. I drove past the salt pans daily. Saw lots of wading birds, egrets and herons mostly. Think about what they were doing while wading. Don’t worry about it though, the salt is so concentrated it kills anything bad in the poop.
NRP, Paracelsus said all things are poisonous, what matters is the dose. You can’t live without it and too much is bad for you. Iodine is added to salt to prevent colloid goiter. Iodine is a chemical essential to your body as are sodium and chloride (table salt). Essentially salt is the acid in our battery. Morton salt is the same as every other salt out there.
@me, actually, (first line of article 🙂 ) “Uses for salt go beyond that of baking chemistry, food flavor, and food preservation, and has a number of other additional uses…”
I am curious for discovery of additional uses for salt.
That said, you bring up a good use as food preservation and a historical one (corning). Corning was an essential food preservation process ‘back in the day’ especially used by sailors navigating the oceans while an ocean crossing would take months, etc..
As an aside, I personally don’t like the taste of corned beef although I wouldn’t complain if that’s all there was. 😉
Me, Morton salt is NOT the same as any other salt. For instance Himalayan salt has an abundance of necessary minerals which gives it the pink to maroon color, Mortons has little or no minerals because of processing.
@me
Unfortunately Morton Salt is only NaCL (They strip all other minerals out in processing) with Iodine added to some of their products. Therefore if you want to eat Morton Salt, go for it, I believe the body also has a need for the other “pollutants “ (including Iodine) so to speak that we may no longer have in our “modern” diet.
I will agree that Morton Salt (NaCL) is exactly like all other “NaCL” And all salts are originally from “sea salt”. What I will argue is the fact that not all “Table Salts” are the same, mainly because of the combination of minerals, mics. organics, and yes even the bird poop.
I do find it interesting and sad at the same time that Ken’s article changed from a simple question on uses for salt to a chemistry lesson and pissing match about the “pollutants” and additives to NaCL. No wonder he pulls his hair out at times
NRP
You forgot to add that a small handful of salt wrapped in a handkerchief makes a nice escape deterrent when thrown in the eyes of an attacker.
It would be way more effective to throw the salt in an attackers face without the rag. 🙂
Actually the definition of salt is NaCl. Na sodium, Cl chloride. Both of these are minerals. Anything else that is in the salt may be another mineral or any other adulterant. Potassium is K and it too can be classified as salt when combined with chloride.
NRP, Ken, I apologize, I just don’t like the marketing hype that sells Nacl at three times the price buy calling it sea salt. I hate it when people get ripped off. You should hear my Tylenol spiel.
@me
Thank you me, but an apology was probably not necessary, as I was also probably a bit overly zealous. I will say I probably do spend way too much for the Salt “Mixes” I use, but in my defense at 61 I do enjoy the taste and think I have gotten to the point I just “want” and can afford them.
Ohhhhh, let’s NOT get started on Ty, it will be a week long rant… HAHAHAHA
Be well
NRP
I liked the article and I learn something damn near every time I read the Modern Survival Blog. I also get a kick out of the funny folks but some of them help me confirm why I am prepared!
God Save This Great Republic!
Table salt is – sodium chloride, bleaching agents, and anti caking agents. In other words, processed crap.
All of the other trace elements and minerals found in unprocessed sea salt are removed for sale to the chemical, fertilizer, and explosives manufacturers.
Our bodies are made up from cells. Cells are like batteries – all electrical activity in cells occurs properly due to the correct major mineral / chemical balance being present in the body. Our blood shares all of the characteristics of salt water from a composition standpoint, plus cells.
Take away all of the potassium, magnesium, calcium, manganese, and the other 90 some odd trace elements present in unprocessed sea salt, and you may have the answer to a lot of health issues. With nothing present in a balanced, readily assimilable food besides the sodium chloride, no wonder modern diets have people messed up.
The Celtic Salt Society is worth a look, the founder did exhaustive research on salt, wrote books, started the company his daughter runs today, and is well worth becoming a member thereof. Once you taste real sea salt, you will never use table salt again.
I am a member, buy their salt, and have no interest in the company beyond that.
Check it out, do some reading, and learn how important salt really is – if it is real.
Romans already knew the many uses for salt, and it was so valuable that soldiers were actually payed in ‘sal’. That’s where the word ‘salary’ comes from!
Good for an (emergency) plug in your radiator too.