The wonders of salt

Aside from making food taste better and pastries sweeter, salt – glorious, wonderful salt – is also an incredible salve for the battle wounds of oral surgery. Which is all the well, since I really can’t eat properly right now and good-tasting food will be wasted on me for the next week or so.

While the Salt Institute of North America (who knew?) lists over 14,000 uses of salt, I won’t attempt to figure out every single one of them. But here are a few not-so-ordinary uses for salt, in case you’re like me and you’re bored out of your mind because you have to spend a good portion of your day either on the couch moaning about the pain, or on the couch sleeping off the Vicodin. Or on the couch attempting to eat mashed up bananas with a baby fork.

  • Pick up a dropped egg. If an egg breaks on the kitchen floor, sprinkle salt on the mess and leave it there for 20 minutes. You’ll be able to wipe it right up.
  • Soothe a bee sting. Wet the sting right away, then cover it with salt.
  • Eliminate a grease fire. Pour salt on top to smother it. (Never use water on a grease fire.)
  • Clean up oven spills. If food boils over onto the oven floor, sprinkle salt on top to stop smoke and odor from forming. When the oven is cool, it’ll be easy to brush away the spot.
  • Set color. If a dye may run, soak the garment for an hour in 1/2 gallon of water to which you’ve added 1/2 cup vinegar and 1/2 cup salt. If rinse water shows color, repeat. This is good for a single-colored fabric or madras. If the item is multicolored, dry-clean it. (Although American-made fabrics are unlikely to run, fabrics from abroad are sometimes iffy.)
  • Kill poison ivy. Add three pounds of salt to a gallon of soapy water. Spray it onto leaves and stems.
  • Make cream whip more easily and egg whites whip faster and higher. Add a pinch of salt.
  • Test for rotten eggs. Put an egg in a cup of water to which you’ve added two teaspoons of salt. A fresh egg will sink, but one that’s iffy will float.
  • Clean the brown spots (from starch) off a non-stick soleplate (the bottom of your iron). Sprinkle salt on a sheet of waxed paper, slide the iron across it, then rub lightly with silver polish.
  • Repel fleas. Wash the doghouse with it.
  • Kill grass growing in cracks in the cement or between patio stones. Sprinkle salt on the grass and pour very hot water over it. Or sprinkle coarse salt on the grass, let stand all day or overnight, then pour hot tap water over it.
  • Clean a glass coffee pot. Fill it with a quarter-cup of table salt and a dozen ice cubes. Swish the mixture around, let it sit for half an hour, fill it with cold water and rinse.
  • Halt the mountain of suds from an overflowing washing machine. Sprinkle salt on the top.
  • Clean artificial flowers. Put them in a bag of salt and shake the bag. Take a look at the color of the salt and you’ll see what you’ve accomplished.
  • Keep windows frost-free. Dip a sponge into salt water and rub it on windows, and they won’t frost up even when the mercury dips below 32 degrees; for the same effect on your car’s windshield, put salt in a little bag made of cheesecloth, moisten it slightly and rub it on.
  • Clean tarnished copper.Fill a 16-ounce spray bottle with hot white vinegar and three tablespoons of salt. Spray it onto the copper, let it sit briefly, then rub clean. (Don’t do this to lacquered copper.)
  • Keep radishes safe in the garden. Salt worms (cutworms) will be repelled if you sprinkle seeds with table salt, then cover with dirt.
  • Clean coffee and tea stains from china cups. Rub them with salt.
  • Keep potatoes and apples from turning brown once they’re sliced. Put them in salted cold water.
  • Clean a cutting board. Cover it with bleach and salt, scrub it with a stiff brush, then rinse with very hot water and wipe with a clean cloth. Repeat with each use.
  • Revive overcooked coffee. Did you forget about the coffee while it was brewing? No matter! Add a pinch of salt to it and revive its true flavor again!
  • Keep salad crisp. Is your salad getting to gooey due to excess water? Want it to be crisp? Well, just add salt to it and eat it crisp even after several hours!
  • Clean messy dough. When leftover dough is cleaned, it tends to get rolled into sticky lumps. To avoid that, just sprinkle a little salt on the leftovers.

I got those from Mary Ellen Pinkham, in iVillage and Onflame in Gomestic. Because those were among the first ten links that came up in Google, and if you must know, it’s hard to do proper research when you’re on the couch.

How about you? Any interesting tips with salt you’d like to share?

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