I’m in a constant state of disagreement with my wife about which shaker is which. I always thought that the pepper goes in the shaker with more holes, because it’s bigger than salt. Salt, since it’s smaller, would go in the shaker with less holes because it’s smaller and comes out more easily.
My wife thinks the opposite, therefore the disagreement.
Anyone have any solid knowledge about this?
–SMM
Salt and pepper grains can be various sizes. Anyway, the one with lots of holes is normally the pepper. Personally I like to use grinders for both.
According to the above link it’s not as clear cut as I thought.
Salt one hole and pepper many holes. Too much salt is bad for you so less holes is the way.
Salt has one hole, pepper has many. I thought this was because generally salt is more free flowing and can more easily make it out of one hole. Ground pepper being more of a powder would take a much longer time to get a decent amount out of a single hole. That, and you don’t need as much salt.
We use the single-hole one for salt and the multi-hole one for … salt. Pepper goes in a pepper mill. Not that we use it more than once or twice a year any way. And that way there’s always one salt shaker around even if you lose the other which I do, constantly.
Actually, it’s been quite a few months since I saw the single-hole one…
looking at sets marked s and p, you find that salt will have fewer holes if the number of holes are not equal. salt is harder to see and it is easy to over dose with many holes. you may even overdose by simply inverting the salt shaker if it has many holes.
My goodness, how political correctness on the use of salt has pervaded our culture! Every salt/pepper shaker set I’ve seen with the shakers marked has had more holes for salt because you use more of it, and fewer holes for pepper because you don’t need a lot of pepper to make a statement, and too much pepper is…too much.
My vote is less holes for salt, more holes for pepper. Or better yet, season well during cooking and leave the salt and pepper in the cabinet. Better for the heart. Alternatively, use pepper and salt grinders.
We use clear ones. 
And they’re not on the table anyway.
And what are you supposed to do with those silly little collector ones? Mickey is salt and Minnie is pepper??
I have always been taught (and my mother and wife agree) that pepper goes in the one-hole shaker. I don’t know the rationale, but I’m confident that that’s the answer that formal etiquette would give.
Mine don’t have any holes in them. They’re clear glass and have plastic stoppers that let the salt or pepper out around the edges. And they seem to be identical.
This. I’ve never seen salt having fewer holes. Never considered anyone doing it that way until this thread.
Oh, and I rarely see one-holed shakers of any sort, It’s usually the same number of holes, but the salt shaker has larger ones.
I’ve always seen salt in the shaker with more holes, pepper in the shaker with fewer. Odd that almost all the votes here seem to go the other way.
I ate at a restaurant that had that philosophy a couple weeks ago of no salt and pepper on the table. Needless to say, their idea of well-seasoned and mine were different, and their burger could have been helped with the addition of just a smidgen of salt. $28 for a flavorless meal (cream of zucchini soup, burger topped with a fried egg, all crying out for salt!) means I will not be going back there again.
There are all sorts of variations of the number or holes in salt and pepper shakers, so anyone describing a type of shaker is probably right in some cases.
Usually, the pepper has fewer holes because pepper actually imparts flavor to food, and you have to be careful about that. Too much flavor is dangerous. Salt, OTOH, makes things good and salty to hide the actual flavor. This is strongly to be desired by the US palate.
Salt goes in the shaker with more holes because you use more of it. Pepper has fewer holes because you need more control of it. I would have thought this was common knowledge.
Traditionally, before the current paranoia about salt, the shaker with the larger (or more) holes got the salt, smaller (or fewer) holes got the pepper. The reason is that people generally use more salt, and a little pepper goes a long way.
The salt goes in the one with only one hole. That’s how it is at royal and military banquets, anyway.
Salt in the one with holes, pepper in the one you crank. No ambiguity whatsoever.