Storing salt

[randyt]

Wasnt sure where to post this.
I have read some folks intend to salt cure meats and suchlike during hard times.
In my mind to do any volume, that will take a lot of salt. Salt is fairly cheap currently. Our feed store has food grade salt for 11 dollars a 50 pound bag.

What is the best way to store large volumes of salt?

 

[d_marsh]

I have some salt stored in mylar bags inside food grade buckets. Like most things, you want to keep moisture away.

 

[Mountain trapper]

I know of people buying the 50 pound salt blocks from the feed store. Just keep them in a dry location. They store better in low humidity.

 

[dademoss]

A sometimes overlooked salt source is the hardware store, for water softener salt. Under 8 bucks for 40 lbs here.

https://www.mortonsalt.com/home-product/morton-pure-and_natural-crystals/

I also have a stock of Iodized.

 

[LadyLocust]

Wasnt sure where to post this.
I have read some folks intend to salt cure meats and suchlike during hard times.
In my mind to do any volume, that will take a lot of salt. Salt is fairly cheap currently. Our feed store has food grade salt for 11 dollars a 50 pound bag.

What is the best way to store large volumes of salt?

Uline has food grade barrels both plastic and steel. Or there are buckets (that’s what I have mine in). Not sure what kind of volume you are thinking. I too did as D and got mine for cheap at the hardware store. I do use it for making icecream so get about a bag a year and rotate through it like my foods etc.

 

[Sourdough]

If you have any friends in the Taxidermy Business, hit them up for salt. We would get thousands of pounds of salt (NO Iodine) months before each hunting-guiding season.

 

[Patchouli]

I don't have large quantities of salt but what I do have has been okay so far. My mom always put a few grains of white rice in the salt shaker to help with moisture/humidity, seems to work.

Uline has food grade barrels both plastic and steel. Or there are buckets (that’s what I have mine in). Not sure what kind of volume you are thinking. I too did as D and got mine for cheap at the hardware store. I do use it for making icecream so get about a bag a year and rotate through it like my foods etc.

Thanks for the handy tip, @LadyLocust

 

[Weedygarden]

I store salt in canning jars using plastic lids. The metal lids would be corroded by the salt. I bought some plastic lids for canning jars just for this purpose. I also have 5 gallon buckets of containers of salt. Just like sugar, I do not use an oxygen absorber in salt. I would think it would just turn salt into a hard clump like it does sugar.

We can get 25 pound bags of salt from Costco and Sam's club for around $5. I do think I got a 25 pound bag for less than $4 a few years ago. I looked for it at Costco recently. I don't remember the exact price, but it was not expensive, still around $5. I just looked online to see if you could order it, but it is not listed there.

I try to have a few different kinds of salt. I keep some pickling salt, sea salt, no salt, lo-salt, and regular iodized salt. We definitely use the pickling salt when we make pickles. The no salt and lo salt are good for making beverages for dehydration. No salt is sodium free. I found tubes of these in the reduced bin at the store a few years ago. I'm assuming that like salt, they have an endless shelf life.

 

[joel]

I have less than one hundred pounds of salt in plastic containers.

 

[Caribou]

I store my salt in plastic buckets like many here. I wouldn’t store salt in metal containers as the salt would rust steel and aluminum would corrode even faster.

 

[Morgan101]

I have two questions. First, isn't salt inert? It is a mineral, right? So does it matter how you store it? If it absorbs moisture and hardens you just break it up, and pound it down back into granules. Am I being too simplistic? Is food grade salt different? I can see where keeping it away from moisture is a good idea, but it won't go bad, right?

Second, how much salt do you need to cure food (I guess meat)? Is there a ratio, X mount of salt will cure Y amount of meat? You always hear the talking heads say you can preserve meat with salt, but never any guidelines on how to do it, or how much you would need.

We have salt with our long term food supply, but limited quantities of iodized table salt. This would be for eating or cooking, not for food preservation.

 

[Weedygarden]

I have two questions. First, isn't salt inert? It is a mineral, right? So does it matter how you store it? If it absorbs moisture and hardens you just break it up, and pound it down back into granules. Am I being too simplistic? Is food grade salt different? I can see where keeping it away from moisture is a good idea, but it won't go bad, right?

Second, how much salt do you need to cure food (I guess meat)? Is there a ratio, X mount of salt will cure Y amount of meat? You always hear the talking heads say you can preserve meat with salt, but never any guidelines on how to do it, or how much you would need.

We have salt with our long term food supply, but limited quantities of iodized table salt. This would be for eating or cooking, not for food preservation.

I do think that salt is inert. It does absorb moisture. You can break it up, but I prefer not to have to because what else is in the moisture? Some of the moisture could be from the air and that would be fine. Others might be due to flooding or some other contamination.

I spoke to a man that I met once in a now closed Survivalist store. He told me that salt is very important, essential. Remember when salt was currency, centuries ago? With how inexpensive it is, for how cheap we can get 25 pounds, I think it is a really good investment. I don't know of anything else that we can store that is as inexpensive. It could be an excellent barter item.

While I have no idea how much salt is needed for curing meat, I know that there are other foods that use salt in the curing process, such as pickles and kraut.