Salt – you sometimes can’t live with it, but you definitely can’t live without it!Salt is a mineral that our bodies require to maintain fluid balance and helps regulate blood and blood pressure, transmits nerve impulses, and helps muscle functions, including the heart, to contract and relax. Too much salt in your system can cause multiple health risks; too little, can cause metabolic imbalance and a host of other unwanted symptoms. Current government guidelines recommend less than 2,300 mg of sodium (about one teaspoon of salt) per day for those over the age of 2 years.
The history of salt is an interesting read and dates back to the beginnings of recorded history, including biblical references. In ancient times, salt was a commodity valued higher than gold! Today, salt is one of the least expensive items on your grocery list and is readily available absolutely everywhere and in a multitude of varieties..
The saltshaker - each home has at least one or more saltshakers in use. If you live in the Yucatan Peninsula or another area where the humidity is high, more than likely you have annoying problems with your saltshakers. The humidity dampens the salt and it, in turn, clogs the holes in the saltshaker. Sound familiar? When you go to use it, the salt just doesn’t come out, so you shake harder and harder, bang the shaker on the table to loosen up the salt inside, use a toothpick to poke the holes in the shaker, and keep shaking away in vain. I always found that frustrating.
I moved to Florida (humidity heaven) in 1966 and stayed put there until 1995. I found it odd that most restaurants had rice in their saltshakers! I thought how in the heck can you confuse the rice with the salt, and visa versa? I soon learned that the rice in the saltshaker was to help keep the salt loose and free-flowing! Great idea and it works! (Many restaurants also put a cracker in their sugar containers for the same reason. That little trick also works.)
Here in Merida, where heat and humidity was invented, we suffer with both and have to take extra precautions. I use rice in my salt shakers, but have also found another way to help keep the salt free-flowing. I found salt and pepper shakers with spring loaded lids! What a great find! I bought them at a kitchen gadget store in Florida, but haven’t seen them down here. If you get frustrated when the salt glops up and doesn’t flow freely from the shaker, I highly recommend using rice in the shaker (about 10 – 15 grains for normal size shaker, more for larger ones), and these wonderful shakers with spring loaded lids. They cost about $6.00 US, but are worth their weight in gold.
This may solve the dilemma of the clogged saltshaker and make retired life even a bit more relaxing than it already is! So, next time friend or family comes for a visit, you may want to request they bring you a pair of salt and pepper shakers. With lids, of course!
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Good info, Mikey. I also found using a tostada chip in the salt shaker does the trick. They bloat up like the cracker does, but don't disintegrate.
ReplyDeleteHowever one brand of Totopos didn't work out too well. It turns out the ants liked the totopos and thus entered the salt shaker (with screwable lid I might add) and set up an ant farm. They had roads to the top and around the lid, it was a full production. I have never seen ants go for the salt before so I figure it had to be that particular totopo.