When I first moved to Houston in the early 80s, I learned about Houston's legendary humidity. I also learned that what it said on the Morton's salt box about "When it rains it pours" wasn't true. Raining or not, salt doesn't pour easily in Houston.
I took an empty Smucker's grape jelly jar and poured it full of salt, then cut off the portion of the label which read "iodized salt" and scotch taped it in place. The purple gingham checked lid makes it look nice and my salt never gets clumpy and hard. All this happened in 1982 and my salt jar is still sitting on my counter. At the time I did this, Smucker's only put the company name on the jar label and the lid was solid gingham checks making it more attractive to reuse their jars.
By Marty Dick from Houston, TX
This page contains the following solutions.
We downsized and moved into a camper (which we love). One of my biggest complaints was because of the humidity, the salt would get clumpy up both in the shaker and also the salt container.
To prevent salt from clogging with moisture, I put 1/4 teaspoon of dried parsley leaves into the salt shaker. I then add the salt. It works every time.
To keep salt from caking in your salt shaker, put a few toothpicks in. You will never have to tap your salt shaker again before using.
When your salt shaker doesn't want to work for you, you can solve the problem by adding dry rice in with the salt. This way your salt won't ball up in little balls. I always put rice in the shaker every time I refill it up.
Keeping Salt Running Free... To keep salt from drawing moisture and hardening into chunks put a few grains of rice in the bottoms of the salt shaker.
I add a few pieces of UNCOOKED rice to my salt shaker. You will never get clumps again!
ThriftyFun is one of the longest running frugal living communities on the Internet. These are archives of older discussions.
Today someone requested a tip for keeping salt and pepper shakers and sugar flowing. Put some rice in the shakers and it will keep the salt and pepper and sugar flowing.