By FLAG, Food Storage: Salt

In the coming weeks I'm going to post these food storage articles written by FLAG. She has been buying, storing, using food storage everyday for almost 40 years! Her knowledge is immense. Salt is an important part of your food storage program. It is recommended that we store 5 pounds per person for a year. I have discovered that if you preserve food, more than 5 pounds should be stored. Salt is very cheap and an easy item to obtain as part of your food storage program. Make sure to store salt in an airtight container. Also make sure to not store your salt around items with strong odors, it will absorb it. Salt is the symbol of life in many countries. In the Orient if someone says, “He was not salted when he as born”, it means he is none too bright– going back to the native custom of washing and salting newborns. The word salary comes from the Latin word for salt. If a person didn’t do their job right, he was said to be “not worth his salt.” Salt is something all animals (including man) MUST have. Without it they will die. We usually crave the amount of salt we need. Salt was and still is used for curing. Soak meats in brine for 10-14 days, then rub it with salt and smoke it in a smoke house for several weeks. Not only meat and butter, but any food with a high water content can be preserved with salt. Fruit, however, wouldn’t taste very good. In bread, salt performs more than just adding flavor; it helps control fermentation, gives dough a better texture, and produces a brown crust.** Salt helps eliminate heat exhaustion. **Salt is used to glaze pottery. **Salt is used to tan animal hides. **Salt is used to melt ice and snow. **Salt is a purifier. Salt water is an effective gargle, cleaner of wounds, a mouth wash, and a dentifrice. **Salt rubs relieve nervous body tension. **Rubbing damp salt on burns, insect stings, itching places, rashes or hives, smarts like the very devil for a little while, but draws of the soreness. **Salt added to the water in your bath tub gives you the same effect as a dip in the ocean: It relieves fatigue, invigorates, and soothes. **Mixing a little salt water with flour keeps lumps from forming in gravies. **Frequent application of salt water acts as a deodorant. ** A dish of butter may be kept firm without ice by wrapping around it a cloth wrung out in salt water. **Soaking nuts over night in salt water, makes it easy to remove the nut meat whole. **To prevent a frying pan from splashing grease, sprinkle a little salt in it. **Fresh milk keeps sweet longer when a pinch of salt is added. **To remove that “muddy” taste from fish caught in small streams, wash them in a strong, cold brine. **Salting the water in which eggs are poached make the white “set”. **Mix on heaping pint of salt, a scant pint of lime, six quarts of water to make an excellent medium which to store fresh eggs in. **Salt mixed with lemon juice cleans brass. **Salt alone rubbed on silver brightens it. **Soot and or oil stains on a carpet may be taken off by rubbing salt with it–several applications may be necessary. **Rubbing hands with salt will remove the odor of gasoline and onions. ** A good dry cleaner may be made by mixing equal parts of salt and cornmeal moistened with turpentine. ** Do you have ants? Sprinkle fine salt on the floors and shelves and them disappear. **Pouring salt brine once a week down the kitchen sink drain prevents grease from collecting and eliminates order. **Adding a pinch of salt to water in a flower vase makes the blooms and leaves remain fresh for a longer time. **Sprinkle salt on the crevices of brick and cement to kill off weeds and grass. Salt is a essential part of food storage FLAG