The Many Uses of Salt
Salt can be bartered during hard times and will be in high demand. Salt has been used for many things throughout the ages. It can be mixed with baking soda to brush your teeth. It can be used to melt ice and snow, extinguish grease fires, clean pots and pans, and keep fruit from turning brown as well as for many other uses. One of the most important uses for salt throughout the ages is in preserving meat.
Preserving Meat With Salt
Salt is a great item to have in your food storage because it is a preservative for meats.
Step 1: Rinse the fresh meat in cold or lukewarm water, then pour a thin layer of salt (generally kosher salt, which is packaged in larger crystals) all over the meat and rub it in.
Step 2: Hang or set the meat somewhere cold (below 60 degrees Fahrenheit, but not below freezing) for a couple weeks to dry. My grandparents had a shed where they would hang the meat to cure it. A basement would work as well. Keep it away from flies and predators. You can get special bags to put the meat in to keep it clean and let it breathe.
Step 3: Cut off a hunk of meat to use and rinse off all the salt with running water before cooking the meat.
I have heard that if you use enough salt or sugar when curing meat, you can even preserve it for decades. If you are using salt with no other preservative method like smoking, then it will take about a 20 percent salt concentration on the surface of the meat, which dries out the excess moisture and blood. This method will kill off most types of microbes and fungus that can spoil food. There are several articles on the Internet about salt curing meat.
Kosher Salt In Preserving Meats
Most kosher salt refers to the size of the salt. Larger crystals help to draw out blood and moisture from meat. This size of salt is used to make meats kosher in accordance with to the guidelines. Redmond has the kosher Sea Salt that meets the Jewish Kosher requirements under leading certifier Orthodox Union (OU).
Old-Fashioned Weed Killer
My grandparents never used herbicides in their garden or yard. They killed those pesky weeds with salt and vinegar. My grandma’s recipe is to bring to a boil about 1 cup of salt, 1 cup of vinegar and 2 cups of water. Put the solution in a spray bottle and spray it directly on the weeds to kill them. Another great method is to pour regular salt directly onto the weeds or unwanted grass that come up between cracks in the sidewalk or patio. Wait until you water the lawn or it rains, and it will naturally kill the weeds without using any harsh chemicals. If you put it on dandelions in your yard, spray it directly on them, being careful not to get it on the grass; it will kill the grass where ever you spray it. Let it set for a few days and the weeds will die.
Snails And Slugs Hate Salt
Snails and slugs are obnoxious, and they pray on your garden vegetables. There is a simple solution to getting rid of them once and for all. Hunt them down with a container of salt. When you find them in the garden, cover them with salt. They won’t survive long; the salt pulls the moisture out of their bodies, and they dehydrate and die.
Brush Your Teeth And Freshen Your Breath
Mix equal amounts of salt and baking soda together in a container and use that to dip your toothbrush into and brush your teeth with the mixture. It whitens the teeth naturally.
For an all-natural mouthwash, mix 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon baking soda into 1/2 cup water. Rinse and gargle.
Give Yourself A Salt Bath
Dissolve one cup of salt into a bathtub full of water to enjoy a nice relaxing soak. You can use a salt scrub to get rid of all the dead, flaky skin. Use a brush or loofah made to scrub the skin, which helps exfoliate the skin and releases toxins.
Leg Cramps
Redmond Real Salt can stop a leg or foot cramp in a matter of minutes. Athletes take it every day to restore the salt lost through sweating. Just mix ½ teaspoon in an 8-ounce glass of water and drink it down.
Not All Salt Is Created Equal
Most table salt sold today is very cheap and has been produced from modern-day oceans using evaporation ponds. It is then demineralized and bleached or whitened, which is a chemical process. Then fillers and anti-caking agents are added; and it is iodized, packaged and sold as table salt. One of the biggest problems with modern ocean and sea salt is that it absorbs contamination from the water and environmental toxins from the air. Many people are very concerned about sea salt because of toxins being dumped in the form of garbage, sewage, toxic waste, radiation, oil spills, lead, mercury and acid rain.
With so many different varieties of salt to choose from, it could become overwhelming and confusing. Options to consider are low salt, no-salt, sea salt, pink salt, kosher salt, French salt and Dead Sea salt.
Most sea salt sold in health food stores has been refined, chemically processed and stripped of their minerals. Then, other ingredients are added that are not natural to sea salt. They do this to control stability, color and taste and to stop the salt from caking. Consuming these ingredients over time can have negative side effects. Be sure to check the label on the salt to make sure there are no additives. The following common ingredients are found in salt that has been chemically processed. Anti-caking ingredients, sodium bicarbonate, sodium iodide, silicon dioxide, YPS, E535, soduim silicoaluminate, magnesium carbonate, magnesium oxide, calcium silicate, potassium iodide, tricalcium phosphate, dextrose which is sugar, potassium chloride, potassium bitartrate, potassium glutamate, adipic acid, fumaric acid, polyethylene glycol 400, disolium inosinate, polysilicate and potassium iodide.
The salt I store in my food-storage pantry is unrefined and full of natural trace minerals. Real salt is not white, because it has not been bleached or stripped of its vital minerals. Real salt is a natural, off-white color with small flecks of other colors such as pink, gray and brown. Real salt retains its natural flavor.
Redmond Real Salt is mined from ancient seabed deposits formed thousands of years ago and tucked under the earth from a time when there was no contamination. These ancient seabeds are remnants of an ancient inland sea in South Central Utah that eventually dried up. Thus, the salt settled to the bottom of the sea as it was drying and was trapped deep within the earth and buried over a process of thousands of years. As the earth shifted, it formed deposits that pushed up to 30 feet from the surface and are now being mined in the small town of Redmond, Utah. Redmond is about 30 miles from where I live, which we call the heart of Utah.
Is Salt Good For Me?
Salt has received a bad rap in the past for causing high blood pressure. The company has many testimonials of people who say the real salt does not affect their blood pressure and their feet do not swell when they use it.
Real salt is essential for optimal health. Our bodies are made up of 72 percent salt water or (saline) and 28 percent minerals. The first thing someone gets when they are admitted to the hospital is an IV with a saline (which is a salt and mineral) solution. This restores the body’s natural electrolyte balance and cures dehydration.
Redmond Real Salt has more than 60 trace minerals that are bioavailable, meaning your body can absorb and use them as nature designed and they are from a Jurassic source. This means they are good for your health and don’t build up on your joints like the minerals in rocks do.
People who don’t have enough salt in their bodies are more likely to become ill than those who have too much. So it is not a question of whether to eat salt; rather, the question is: What kind of salt is the best to consume?
– Peggy Layton