? about salt

I know it is probally on the Monkey I got about 20 boxes of table salt on sale today. Im trying to figure the best way to store it I have been collecting, cleaning and dring large heavy grade juice bottles as we empty them with my little one. Heres my thought and it would save me needed space would it be safe to put the salt into the bottles and after putting the lid on dip in canning wax.

 

Naw, just drop in one of those little silica packets you get in shoe boxes, purses, etc. They are moisture absorbers.

 

Try rice as a dessicant

A trick that I learned from my mother was to drop several grains of white rice into a salt cellar to prevent the salt clagging up with ambient air humidity...it should also work for long time storeage in sealed containers.

 

Salt doesn't go bad store it anyway you want just keep it covered. It used to be sold in cones, water added then pressed and dried. I bought a 50 lbs bag and just put it in a bucket with lid.

 

Salt is more or less self-preserving (table salt at any rate). I have many boxes of salt that have been kept for over two years now, in the regular packaging unopened, with no lumping, on shelving on the main floor of the house. I have opened the occasional box to check and everything has been dry. As other posters have suggested, you can open and re-pack, adding dehydrator packets if you wish, or rice (especially if you live in a very humid area). But it really does not need anything at all, at least as far as I have been able to find out.

I am going to be getting in lots of coarse salt since it is needed for most canning and preserving. I am not sure if it needs special treatment for storage or not but I am going to check it out....if I find out anything very different from treatment of table salt, I will post the info.

 

Pool salt?? any ideas about usefulness other than for pools?

I'm wondering how appropriate pool salt would be for human consumption?? It ought be ok as a preservative...curing leather etc??

 

Someone suggested rice, thats also what I would use

 

I'm using salt from 1996. A little rice put in to take care of residual moisture and canned in glass jars on a dry day.Pours just like it just came home from the store. I also have rock salt that is outlasting the plastic pails it's in. Probably from the early eighties.It has caked a bit but very little.

 

salt is the easiest food prep to store .... has the potential to be the most valuable item in your stores ..... great barter item in 1lb lots .....

 

I do not put rice in my salt. Most store bought salt comes with anti-caking agents already.

That being said, just store it in an air tight container with some real desiccant (either reused from something else, food grade or purchase new). Once sealed no moisture should get in, if it does and the salt clumps then break it up. I just looked at the boxes of salt we got on clearance at a store last year, all contain "calcium silicate" - an anti caking agent. All containers are still in the original packaging, which is a cardboard type box, none had any clumping.

I wouldn't bother with the wax on the bottles, the tops will seal the bottles just fine, you're not canning/preserving the salt in the bottles. I do like the idea of putting the salt in to bottles, as I live in a flood zone, this would keep the salt safe should we get hit with another flood.

This is all just my opinion, i may be wrong.

 

I got four boxes per bottle that opened up alot of shelf space for me, I did take Falcons advise and put a couple packets in each bottle just to be safe.

 

Further to my post yesterday on storage of salt....if the salt does become lumpy because of absorbing dampness, it can be dried out in the oven and is fit for use just as if it had never been damp. Salt never goes "bad" (which is why we call some people - like we Monkeys, lol, - the "salt of the earth")! Amazing stuff the good Lord has put on earth for us! Never forget that while too much salt is bad for us, too little can be deadly. We need sodium to survive, it is not optional but like Brylcreem, "a little dab'll do ya"!

Regarding coarse salt, Kosher salt, etc., for pickling, preserving etc., it is the only kind which should be used for these purposes. Table salt will not do and I believe it's because of the additives mentioned in another post. But the same principle remains: additives or no additives, all these salts will store "forever".

Chello, I could be mistaken but I believe I read somewhere that pool salts are not suitable for human consumption. I certainly wouldn't use them without thoroughly checking it out.....just sayin'!

And isn't it nice that something so valuable, so necessary to us as Preppers, is so CHEAP! No excuse or reason for not having a barnful put by for the evil days coming upon us!

 

Morton's pool salt is 100% NaCl. According to the MSDS, it is salt, pure and simple. If there is any question about a salt product, just check the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS). Pool salt sells for $0.02/cents a pound less than bulk table salt here.

http://www.hillbrothers.com/msds/pdf/n/pool-salt.pdf

 

According to a letter from Morton's, quoted on another survival site, - their Pool Salt is not considered usable as Table Salt. Also, Aquasalt stated in their site that their Pool Salt is not for human consumption.

I don't imagine occasional use would be harmful but who knows about long term usage, if Pool Salt was all you stored?

I did read on another site, that the Iodine in table salt degrades after a certain time (but no indication of whether that means months, or years, or centuries!) Which could mean trouble up ahead "if the salt had lost its savour", so to speak. It seems there just is never an easy way through the minefields when you are preparing for TEOTWAWKI, lol!

 

Thanks granny

Thankyou for the advice, granny..I kinda figured that the pool salt may not be suitable, at least for human consumption...it should be ok however for use for the field curing of leather and fur pelts, and perhaps for some other non edible applications.

 

I buy 50 lbs bag of salt and store it in buckets with Gamma seal lids. Mylar bags and O2 absorbers are used also.

 

Why? The only nemesis salt has is moisture. A 5 gallon bucket, with food grade. rubber gasket lid and moisture absorbers are plenty to preserve salt. Unless you are burying it...


So, the question remains, why all that?

 

I think rice is a good way to go if you take the salt out of it's original packaging. I see it used a lot in salt shakers around this humid climate.