Salt is clumping together. Isn’t there some old wives trick with rice or something? If it is rice (or whatever) how much do I need relative to the salt ratiowise?
My mother always put rice in the salt shaker and I guess it did the trick because we never suffered from the dreaded salt clump syndrome. Ratio??? Hell, I don’t know. Experiment tilll you get it right. All I know is that it works.
Restaurants around here always put a bunch of rice in their salt shakers. I don’t know what ratio they use, but it’s enough that you can see pretty easily that there’s rice in there. (I know plenty of people who’ve worked in restaurants, but I can’t call them and ask them the details because it’s the middle of the night.) I don’t have any opinion on whether it works or not, but I wouldn’t want to eat the salt if it and the rice weren’t replaced extremely often.
At one restaurant here in town I noticed that the sugar jar on my table had a bunch of saltine crackers in it. They were still in their little plastic packages, like the kind some restaurants bring you when you have a salad, but the packages were opened so moisture could get in. Again, I hope they replace the whole mess every day.
This all gives me an idea for an invention.
Yeah, rice does the trick. Put in a few grains after you’ve filled your shaker with salt. Don’t fill it all the way to the top with salt-- leave about a half inch of space. I don’t think there’s a proper ratio of rice to salt to follow; just add a couple pinches’ worth. You don’t need a lot.
Okay, I just had an exclusive conversation with a New Orleans restaurant industry insider (that is, someone who’s worked at dozens of restaurants in the humid South for an average of about a month apiece). She was slurring her words pretty badly because she had been enjoying some New Orleans cocktail refreshments, but I think she said that it didn’t really matter how much rice you put in. She said you might as well fill the salt shaker halfway with rice and then fill the rest of it up with salt and it’s all good. As long as salt comes out when you shake it over your food, right?
Anyway, astro, you ask some good questions and if you ever want a job in my planned “Gulf-Coast-Sauna-Like-Humidity-Pruf ™” saltshaker factory, just give me a holler.
It works better if you roast the rice first, or so I hear. Just put the rice on a dry frying pan and heat for half a minute or so.
I think the rice just absorbs the moisture, keeping the salt dry. If so, a packet of desiccant (the kind that comes in some food packages) might work even better. (Though not all “do not eat” packets are desiccants - some are oxygen absorbers.)
A pinch of rice will do–no need for half a shaker full. Ten grains does the trick for me.
Rice will mechanically break up the salt clumps.
If you want to absorb moisture to prevent clumping in the first place, put a pinch of corn starch in the shaker.
just get one of those grinding salt shaker things. those are cooler.
grunch grunch
Oh, this primate is enlightened and enhappied by this thread:
I’ve never been in a place where salt clumps!
-Another Primate from the Great Northwest
I use a Salton Damp-Proof Salt Shaker. Alas, the company that made them went out of business during the depression, but it was a very simple and clever design and I’m surprised no one has picked up on it.
I think I can speak as somewhat of an
expert here, as the tropic of Capricorn
runs through São Paulo, so its way humid
all the time. I always use one third measure
of white rice two thirds measure of salt.
I came upon a third after experimenting with
different size salt shakers, (the one you use
for the table is far smaller then the one you
use for the Bar-B-Que for instance). If you use more
than a third, the rice has a tendency to block the holes
as you shake, use less and the salt still cakes (though
not like if you used none). I have used wild rice
and it almost didn’t work, I think because it still has
its husk, so it can’t absorb as much moisture (I would
think). The next big problems to solve are: 1) how to
keep your cigarettes turning to rubber during the wet season
and 2) how to keep your printer paper dry enough so as
not to stick together and trash every other laser print you make.
When I know I’ll be sure to let you in on it!
How do you solve the problem that as you use the salt you are disrupting this 1/3 rice to 2/3s salt proportion? 
A cracker in the jar can also adsorb the moisture without clogging the holes.
from kniz
I knew some intelligent doper from the peanut gallery was going to ask
this. Its almost a joke around here, you see some one shaking hell out of
the shaker and only a fine white “rice dust” comes out, you are
obliged to say “hay, I didn’t know you could make rice from salt!”
(Gafaw, Gafaw). The trick is to stay on top of it, when the salt
stops flowing in a reasonable manner, it is obviously time to add
more salt. Also through mechanical action, the rice tends to get
“corrupted” after a while, imagine taking sand paper to a bunch
of individual rice bits on a daily basis. So about once a month
or there abouts, (when the salt gets low) its necessary to change
the rice as well. I never said this was a maintenance free solution,
but in my opinion it beats sticky, humid salt any day.
Somebody recently told me that keeping the shaker in the fridge when not in use prevents caking/clogging, but this seems counter-intuitive to me.
Actually, it does make a fair amount of sense:
Modern frost-free refrigerators work by removing moisture from the food compartment. So they will tend to dehydrate anything exposed to the air in there. (That’s why you have a vegetable drawer – to limit their exposure to circulating drying cold air.
Of course, when you take the salt shaker out, you’ll probably get some condensation on the sides, because it’s cold. Using a lighter weight (non glass) salt shaker will reduce that problem.
If you didn’t dare trying out storing the salt in the fridge 12 years ago, Mangetout, maybe now it’s time?
If you keep a zombie in the dining room you won’t care whether the salt is clumped or not!