Got Salt?

[Colombo]

I wonder what some others thoughts are on just how much is enough?
I'm picking up an extra 50# bag later today at the feed store, runs just under 7 bucks. And yes I have iodized salt put away for cooking but my thinking is more to meat preservation, trading, deer/shrimp bait...

[JohnyMac]

Colombo 

I have 50# of iodized salt per person put away which I do not think is enough.

Salt has so many uses. You mentioned a few, "meat preservation, trading, deer/shrimp bait..." Salt also has medical uses like, sore throats, toothaches, postnasal drip, bee stings, mosquito bites, painful gums, poison ivy, and poison oak are some of the ailments for which salt has been prescribed.

I added 25#'s per person of baking soda, which has many uses other than baking like, cleaning, antacid, deodorant, tooth paste, remove odors to name a few.

PLUS, I have 6 gallons of apple cider vinegar and 6 gallons (12 total per person) of white distilled vinegar per person. The obvious is cooking but you can use it for, pickling, stomach aces, cleaning, clean rust from tools and bolts to name a few.

Thanks for bringing it up Colombo! 

[Currahee]

I don't have near that much.  One lb. each in my bug out (canned good) boxes, 1/2 lb. each in my bulk storage buckets that I keep at home so about 5 pounds at home and about a pound at each bug out location. I also have a couple of 1 gallon containers of aquarium salt, which is a ridiculously expensive way to get salt but I use it for aquariums... but could be used in a pinch (pun intended.)

Way more salt than we go through in normal operation.

About the same with sugar minus the aquarium stuff.

I'm looking at trying out pickling, and if I'm successful at it I will add vinegar past what we have in the pantry.

[Kentactic]

USDA recommends 2000mg a day of salt. Based on that its about 1.6lbs a year. If your going to be consuming a lot of canned goods you could probably not add any salt and be fine. 10 lbs of salt should be more then enough for a family of 5 for a year. Obviously when you start preserving food with salt that will go way up. Only you know how much salt youll use for that.

[APX808]

USDA recommends 2000mg a day of salt. Based on that its about 1.6lbs a year. If your going to be consuming a lot of canned goods you could probably not add any salt and be fine. 10 lbs of salt should be more then enough for a family of 5 for a year. Obviously when you start preserving food with salt that will go way up. Only you know how much salt youll use for that.

That's true, but when cooking a lot of salt is discarded with the boiling water or falls off the grill etc,  so those figures go way up.

[Kentactic]

Consider this. Salt is 40% sodium. A can of buschs baked beans has 550mg of sodium per serving. So thats around 1200mg if you got it from salt. A cup of beans would be your entire days intake of sodium. Even if only half that made it into your system then 2 cups would be your days intake of sodium. 2 cups of beans is like a side size portion of beans if you ask me.

[Grudgie]

What kind of salt is best for prepping?

[thatGirl]

What kind of salt is best for prepping?

Iodized salt.  Iodine deficiency can cause a whole host of problems and salt is the main way we get it.  You may find that you want a coarser salt for curing meat, which may not be iodized depending on your preference, but make sure you store some of the iodized stuff to use in other recipes.   

[crudos]

Is the big salt bags that is used for soft water systems of any prepping use?

[JohnyMac]

Great question Crudos...I never have used it so I do not know. You may want to contact the manufacture concerning what additives they may add.

[crudos]

JM, doing a bit of cursory reading up on water-softener salt, it's basically just rock salt, which may or may not have additional additives to aid in the water-softening process, like you mentioned. If it's just rock salt, you can grind it up and use like regular table salt. So yeah, I need some pretzels and beer now.
 

[JohnyMac]

LOL! Salt has been used for eons to cure protein.

A quick duckduckgo search (No longer use Google) and came up with this post on medical uses of salt. http://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/natural-medicine/home-remedies/uses-for-salt-medical-treatments-ga.htm

Like everything in life, if used in moderation - Salt is good for you.

[thatGuy]

What kind of salt is best for prepping?

Iodized salt.  Iodine deficiency can cause a whole host of problems and salt is the main way we get it.  You may find that you want a coarser salt for curing meat, which may not be iodized depending on your preference, but make sure you store some of the iodized stuff to use in other recipes.

We prep sea salt and Iodized table salt, one for curing meat and the other for flavoring and iodine.

[gapatriot]

Feed store salt is great for bulk storage, BUT make sure its just NaCl because some feed salt has other minerals added for live stock.

[Jeremy Knauff]

Something to think about...if you store the smaller containers (smaller by prepper standards?like the large box of Morton's salt at the grocery store) be sure to put it into a sealed container. Here in FL, the humidity will eventually degrade the cardboard, and even sooner, cause the salt to clump up.

[JohnyMac]

I bought my salt from a restaurant supply house. The salt came in 25# bags and I poured the salt into 6 gallon mylar bags that were in 5 gallon Home Depot buckets. Threw in the appropriate oxygen absorbers and sealed the mylar then the bucket.

As Jeremy wrote, card board will not cut it.

[Grudgie]

Johnnymac, how long ago did you store your salt? I had read using oxygen absorbers made salt hard as rock and weren't necessary.

[JohnyMac]

Grudgie, I bucketed up my salt in 2011 (I think). The stats are on another computer. I have not opened the bucket/mylar bag so I do not know the condition - Sorry.

I have never read anything about not using 02 absorbers for salt but I have read about not using 02 absorbers for sugar. Either way, I used 02 absorbers for both and if they come out as one lump of salt/sugar I guess a chisel and hammer will come in handy 

Great question. Maybe you (or I) could get the poop so the forum doesn't guess in the future. 

EDIT: Not scientific but here is your answer Grudgie:

Oxygen Absorbers: Food That Does Not Require O2 Absorbers