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There is a box of salt in near every kitchen in the land, sitting in the cupboard, thought of as nothing but the thing you shake on your supper. It costs almost nothing, a few pennies for a great box of it, and most folks never imagine it is good for a single thing beyond seasoning the food. But salt is one of the oldest and most useful things a household ever kept, so prized in the old days that men were once paid their wages in it, and it will do a dozen jobs about your house that you now buy special costly products to do. It cleans, it scours, it puts out a fire, it saves a spill, it soothes a sore throat, all from that cheap box in your cupboard. In this video I give you ten of the best old uses for plain salt, and you may never look at that box the same way again.
I am Elias, and on this Lancaster County place we set great store by the few plain cheap things that do many jobs, the vinegar, the baking soda, and salt right along with them. My mother kept salt not just for the table but for the cleaning and the curing and the odd remedy, a great crock of it, and reached for it near as
https://eliasyoder.com
There is a box of salt in near every kitchen in the land, sitting in the cupboard, thought of as nothing but the thing you shake on your supper. It costs almost nothing, a few pennies for a great box of it, and most folks never imagine it is good for a single thing beyond seasoning the food. But salt is one of the oldest and most useful things a household ever kept, so prized in the old days that men were once paid their wages in it, and it will do a dozen jobs about your house that you now buy special costly products to do. It cleans, it scours, it puts out a fire, it saves a spill, it soothes a sore throat, all from that cheap box in your cupboard. In this video I give you ten of the best old uses for plain salt, and you may never look at that box the same way again.
I am Elias, and on this Lancaster County place we set great store by the few plain cheap things that do many jobs, the vinegar, the baking soda, and salt right along with them. My mother kept salt not just for the table but for the cleaning and the curing and the odd remedy, a great crock of it, and reached for it near as
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00:00There is a box of salt in near every kitchen in the land, sitting in the cupboard, thought of as
00:05nothing but the thing you shake on your supper. It costs almost nothing, a few pennies for a great box
00:12of it, and most folks never imagine it is good for a single thing beyond seasoning the food.
00:18But salt is one of the oldest and most useful things a household ever kept, so prized in the old
00:25days that men were once paid their wages in it, and it will do a dozen jobs about your house
00:31that you now buy special, costly products to do. It cleans, it scours, it puts out a fire, it saves
00:39a spill, it soothes a sore throat, all from that cheap box in your cupboard.
00:44Today, I am going to give you ten of the best old uses for plain salt, and you may never
00:51look at that box the same way again.
00:53I am Elias, and on this Lancaster County place, we set great store by the few plain cheap things that
01:01do many jobs, the vinegar, the baking soda, and salt right along with them.
01:06My mother kept salt not just for the table, but for the cleaning and the curing and the odd remedy,
01:13a great crock of it, and reached for it near as often as she reached for water.
01:18It is one of those humble old things that a body who knows its uses need never be without, and
01:25it will save you a good deal of money besides.
01:28So let me show you what that cheap box of salt can do.
01:32Quick word before I go further. The old methods my family uses. There is more of it than fits in
01:38any one video.
01:39I gathered the whole of it into a book at EliasYoder.com. The book is the long version. If you
01:46want it, it is there. I will not mention it again.
01:50I think of how my grandmother spoke of salt, for she had heard from her own mother how dear it
01:56once was, hauled in by the barrel and guarded, a thing you did not waste a grain of.
02:01In the old days, before there was an ice box in any house, salt was what stood between a family
02:07and hunger through the winter, for it was salt that kept the meat from spoiling, salt that put up the
02:13fish and the hams to last till spring.
02:16A family's salt was near as precious as its flour, and so the old people learned every last use of
02:23it, in the kitchen and out, and passed that knowing down.
02:27My mother still kept her great crock of it, and used it a dozen ways, and though salt is cheap
02:33as dirt now, and we think nothing of it, that old knowing of all it can do is worth the
02:39keeping.
02:39That is what I want to hand you today. The first use is for cleaning a flat iron that has
02:45gotten something stuck and scorched onto its face, that sticky, burnt mess that fouls the smooth plate so it drags
02:53and marks your cloth.
02:54Salt lifts it right off. You heat your iron good and hot, and while it heats, you take a sheet
03:01of paper, a plain piece of wax paper or newspaper, and sprinkle a good generous layer of salt over it.
03:08Then you run the hot iron back and forth over that salt for a minute or so, and the salt
03:13scours and grabs the burnt, sticky residue right off the face of the iron and clumps it up onto the
03:19paper.
03:20When you are done, the plate of your iron is clean and smooth again, squeaky clean, with no harsh chemical
03:27and no scratching.
03:28The salt does the scouring, gentle enough not to mar the iron, but rough enough to lift the mess.
03:35It works because each little grain of salt is a hard, sharp crystal, a tiny scouring stone, and dragged hot
03:43across the fouled plate, the thousands of them together scrub the burnt stuff loose, while being softer than the iron
03:50itself so they do not scratch it.
03:53Fine table salt does well, and a coarser salt scours harder still if the mess is stubborn.
04:00The second use is for cleaning up a dropped egg, one of the messiest little spills there is, for a
04:06raw egg dropped on the floor spreads into a slippery, slimy puddle that you chase around with a rag and
04:13never quite get.
04:14Salt tames it. You sprinkle a good healthy dose of salt right over the spilled egg and let it sit
04:2110 or 15 minutes.
04:22The salt draws the wet out and firms the egg up, coagulates it, drawing that runny, slippery mess together into
04:30something firm you can simply sweep or wipe up in one go, right into the dust pan or a bit
04:36of paper, with no chasing it about.
04:38It seems a small thing until the next time you drop an egg, and then you will bless the trick.
04:44And it works on other slippery wet spills of that kind, anything runny and hard to gather, for the salt
04:51draws the moisture and firms the mess so you can lift it in one go, rather than smearing it about
04:57and using half a roll of paper.
05:00Salt turns a slippery chase into a simple sweep.
05:04The third use is the most important of all, and it may one day save your house or your life,
05:10so heat it well, and it is putting out a grease fire.
05:14This is a thing every soul who cooks should know cold.
05:19When grease or oil in a pan catches fire on the stove, as it can in an instant, you must
05:25never, ever throw water on it, for water on a grease fire does not put it out.
05:31It explodes it, throwing burning grease everywhere, and turning a small fire into a disaster.
05:38So water is out.
05:40But salt will smother it.
05:43You grab your box of salt, and you pour it, a great deal of it, directly onto the flames, and
05:49the salt smothers the fire, cutting off the air it needs to burn, and puts it out.
05:54So keep your salt handy by the stove, and if ever the grease catches, salt on it, never water.
06:02A lid clapped over the pan smothers it, too, by the same cutting off of the air.
06:08Now I will say plainly, this is for a small grease fire caught at once, a pan on the stove.
06:15A fire that has spread and grown is past a box of salt, and then you get everyone out and
06:22call the fire brigade, and do not be a hero.
06:25But for that sudden pan of flaming grease, the salt is your friend, and the water is your enemy, and
06:32knowing that one thing may save you a terrible loss.
06:36And understand why the water is so deadly here, for it is worth knowing.
06:41The burning grease is far hotter than boiling, so when water hits it, that water flashes to steam in an
06:49instant and blasts upward, throwing the burning grease up and out in a great ball of flame, spreading the fire
06:57everywhere at once.
06:58That is why a small pan fire becomes a burning kitchen the moment water touches it.
07:05The salt, being dry, does no such thing.
07:08It only smothers, laying over the grease and shutting out the air.
07:13So teach this to everyone in your house, the children, too, when they are old enough to be near a
07:19stove.
07:20For the instinct in a fright is always to reach for water, and that instinct must be trained out.
07:26Salt or a lid, never water.
07:30Keep the box of salt within arm's reach of the stove, where you can grab it without thinking.
07:37The fourth use is for a pan with food burnt and caked onto it, that scorched crust that will not
07:44scrub off, no matter how you work at it.
07:47Salt lifts it.
07:48You cover the bottom of the pan with a good layer of salt, and then add a little water, just
07:54enough to wet it into a paste, and let that salt and water sit in the pan about ten minutes.
08:00The salt works at the burnt food and grease, loosening its grip on the pan, and after it has sat,
08:08you can simply wipe the debris away, where before it would not budge, and go on with your day.
08:14It is a fine, gentle way to clean a scorched pan without scratching it or scrubbing your arm off, and
08:21it is a special friend to the cast iron, for it cleans without stripping the pan's seasoning, the way soap
08:28and hard scrubbing would.
08:30For a cast iron pan, you can even scour it with a good handful of coarse salt and a stiff
08:36brush or a wadded cloth while it is still a little warm, no water at all, and the salt scrubs
08:43off the stuck food and the grease, and leaves the pan clean and its seasoning whole, and then you wipe
08:50it and rub it with a little oil, and it is ready for the next meal.
08:54The old cooks cleaned their iron this way for generations, with salt and never with soap, and their pans lasted
09:03a lifetime and more, handed down black and smooth as glass.
09:08Salt is the cast iron's best friend in the cleaning.
09:12The fifth use follows right on, for when you have cleaned that pan, your sponge or cloth is like as
09:19not left nasty and greasy, and rather than throw it out, you can freshen it with salt.
09:25You fill a bowl with a couple cups of water, and dissolve a good quarter cup of salt into it,
09:32and you set your dirty sponge down into that salt water and leave it to soak overnight.
09:37By morning, the salt water has drawn the grease and the nastiness out of the sponge, and it comes out
09:44fresh and clean and ready for use again.
09:47It saves you throwing out a sponge before its time, and freshens a cloth gone sour besides.
09:54The sixth use is for the stains in a bathtub or a sink or on porcelain, those stubborn stains that
10:02the ordinary washing will not lift.
10:04Now, some folks reach for harsh chemical scouring powders, or worse for this, but you do not need them.
10:11You take salt, which is a fine, gentle scouring grit, and you pair it with a little vinegar or the
10:18juice of a cut lemon, and there is your tub scrub.
10:22You can sprinkle the salt right onto the stain, and then scrub with half a cut lemon, the salt doing
10:29the scouring, and the sour of the lemon or vinegar cutting the stain and the hard water crust, and together
10:36they lift those stains and leave the porcelain bright and clean.
10:41It is cheap, it is gentle on the porcelain, and it fills your house with the smell of lemon rather
10:47than harsh fumes.
10:48Salt and a lemon, or salt and vinegar, and your tub comes clean.
10:54It is fine for the rust-colored and hard water stains especially, the kind that build where the water drips
11:01and sits, for the acid of the lemon or vinegar dissolves that mineral crust while the salt scours it away.
11:09One honest word, keep this off any natural stone or marble, for the acid can etch those.
11:16But on porcelain and enamel, and the ordinary tub and sink, it is a gentle and effective scrub.
11:24Make a paste of the salt and a little vinegar for a stubborn spot, and let it sit a while
11:30before you scrub, and even an old stain gives way.
11:33The seventh use is for a clogged or slow drain, the same trouble I have spoken of before, but with
11:41salt added to make it stronger.
11:43When the water will not go down, first clear away what hair or debris you can reach by hand.
11:51Then you make your foaming cleaner.
11:53A quarter cup of baking soda, and a quarter cup of salt mixed together, poured down the drain, and after
12:01it, about half a cup of plain vinegar.
12:03It will foam and fizz up in the drain, the salt adding a scouring grit to the foaming action, and
12:11you let it sit and work a good fifteen minutes.
12:14Then you boil a kettle of water, and pour it down to flush the whole thing through, and clear out
12:20the loosened gunk and any leftover powder.
12:23Now the honest word, as before, this works on the grease and the soap and the light clogs that build
12:31up slow, but a drain truly blocked solid may want a plumber.
12:35For the common slow drain, though, the soda and salt and vinegar is a fine, cheap thing to try before
12:43ever you reach for the harsh drain chemicals.
12:46Now those are the seven that clean and mend about the house, but salt does more yet, and I will
12:53give you three more from the kitchen,
12:55for it was in the cooking and the keeping of food that the old people prized salt most of all.
13:02The eighth use is to keep cut fruit and vegetables from browning.
13:06You know how a cut apple, or a peeled potato, will go brown and ugly in the air in short
13:13order.
13:13A little salt keeps it fresh and white.
13:17You dissolve a small bit of salt in a bowl of cold water, and you drop your cut apples or
13:23peeled potatoes into that lightly salted water,
13:26and it keeps them from browning while you work, holding them fresh and white until you are ready for them.
13:33Only use a light hand with the salt, and a quick rinse after, and your fruit stays fair.
13:39It is a fine trick when you are peeling a great mess of potatoes, or slicing apples for a pie,
13:46and cannot use them all at once.
13:48The old cooks kept a bowl of the salted water right by them as they worked, dropping each piece in
13:54as they cut it,
13:55so a whole afternoon's peelings stayed fair and white till it all went in the pot together.
14:02The ninth use is a pair of old kitchen tricks with eggs.
14:07The first, if you would poach an egg, a spoonful of salt added to the simmering water helps the white
14:14of the egg to set up firm and hold together,
14:16rather than spreading into ragged wisps, so your poached egg comes out neat and whole.
14:23And the second is a way to test whether an egg is still good, which every household that keeps hens
14:29should know.
14:30You take a bowl of water and stir in a good bit of salt to make it salty, and you
14:36set your egg into it.
14:38A fresh, good egg is heavy and will sink and lie down on the bottom.
14:43An old egg has lost moisture and gained air inside its shell, so a bad old egg will float up,
14:51and one just starting to turn will stand up on its end.
14:55So sink is good, float is bad, and you can check a doubtful egg in a moment before you crack
15:02it into your good batter and spoil the lot.
15:05The reason it works is plain once you know it, for an egg shell is not perfectly sealed, it breathes
15:12a little through tiny pores,
15:14and as an egg ages, it slowly loses its moisture out through the shell and takes in air in its
15:21place, growing a larger and larger air pocket inside.
15:25A fresh egg has little air and so is heavy and sinks.
15:30An old egg has a great air pocket and so grows light and floats.
15:35It is a wonderfully reliable test, and any household keeping hens, where you may have eggs of different ages about
15:43and one you are unsure of, does well to know it.
15:47A quick dunk in the salt water tells you true before you trust the egg.
15:53The tenth use is a soothing old remedy, and here I must give you the plain honest word first, as
16:00I always do, for I am no doctor and this is no cure.
16:04A warm salt water gargle eases a sore throat.
16:08When your throat is raw and scratchy and sore, you dissolve a spoonful of salt in a cup of warm
16:15water and gargle with it, a mouthful at a time, and spit it out, several times over.
16:21It soothes the soreness and can help draw down the swelling and ease the throat, and it is a comfort
16:28that has been used for a very long time.
16:31But hear me plain, this only soothes, it does not cure, and it is no substitute for a doctor.
16:38If a sore throat is bad, or hangs on, or comes with a real fever or trouble swallowing or breathing,
16:45that is a doctor's matter and not a thing to gargle away, so see one.
16:50For the ordinary scratchy sore throat, though, the warm salt gargle is a cheap old comfort that truly helps.
16:59It works by drawing, the way salt always draws the water, easing the swollen tissues of the throat and helping
17:07to loosen and wash away what irritates them, and the warmth of it soothes besides.
17:13Gargle it several times a day while the soreness lasts, warm and not too strong, a good spoonful to the
17:21cup.
17:21It is one of the oldest home comforts there is, and gentle enough for near anyone old enough to gargle
17:28without swallowing it.
17:30Now let me say a small, plain word, not a who-profits sermon, for salt is no one's scheme, only
17:37an old cheap friend.
17:39But there is a thing worth noticing in it.
17:42Here is one cheap box, a few pennies, that scours your pans and cleans your iron, and puts out a
17:49fire and soothes your throat and keeps your food.
17:51And yet we have been taught to buy a different costly product for every one of those jobs, the special
17:58pan cleaner, and the scouring powder, and the drain chemical, and the throat lozenge, a whole cupboard of deer bottles
18:06doing what one box of salt would do.
18:09There is money in selling a man ten products, and none in reminding him that the cheapest thing in his
18:15kitchen already does the work of them all.
18:17So the old knowing of what plain salt can do got crowded out by all the bright expensive bottles, not
18:25by anyone's scheme, just by the plain drift of things, and folks forgot.
18:30The old people forgot nothing of the sort, for salt was too precious and too useful to them to be
18:36thought of as mere seasoning.
18:38So there are ten good uses for a plain box of salt, and there are many more besides.
18:44It cleans your scorched iron, tames a dropped egg, smothers a grease fire, lifts the burnt crust from a pan,
18:53freshens a nasty sponge, scours your tub bright with a lemon,
18:57helps clear a slow drain, keeps your cut apples from browning, sets your poached egg, and tests your doubtful ones,
19:06and soothes your sore throat.
19:08All from that cheap box in the cupboard you thought was only for the table.
19:13Keep it handy, and you will find you reach for it again and again.
19:17Now I want to hear from you. Tell me down below what you use salt for around your own house
19:23and kitchen,
19:24for I know the old cooks and housekeepers among you have a dozen tricks I have not named.
19:30And tell me too what part of the country you write from, and whether the salt fire trick or the
19:35egg test was new to you,
19:37for these old bits of knowing are exactly what get lost, and I like to see where they still live.
19:43I read every one.
19:45Next time, I want to show you the greatest old use for salt of all, the one it was most
19:51prized for through all the long ages before there was any icebox,
19:56the curing and preserving of food with salt, the hams and the bacon and the salt fish and the rest,
20:03how the old people put up their meat to last the year with nothing but salt and knowing.
20:08The old people knew that a few cheap plain things, salt first among the oldest of them,
20:14would do the work that we now fill our cupboards with costly bottles to do, and they kept those things
20:20and knew their every use.
20:22There is a quiet wisdom in it, in the humble box of salt that seasons your food and cleans your
20:28house and mends a dozen troubles, all for a few pennies.
20:32The people who built this country with their hands knew that, and we are only just starting to remember it.
20:38The people that we were taking over the amount of food and things, taking over the next piece,
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