Table salt shelf life

[APX808]

Hey guys, the other day I bought like 10 kg of table salt because it was cheap
Do you know it's shelf life? I think it will be ok as long as is kept away from humidity right?

What do you know about it, any tip you can give me?

[Kentactic]

Seems like it would keep forever so long as bugs or moisture are kept out. I know some put raw rice in with salt to keep it dry.

[JohnyMac]

Salt keeps FOREVER! High humidity or not (High humidity = ice pick and then hammer).

No worries man...

[thatGuy]

Salt keeps FOREVER! High humidity or not (High humidity = ice pick and then hammer).

No worries man...

even if it gets so wet that you have a brine you can evaporate the water and bam, salt.

John is right, nothing to do salt lasts forever.

[Burt Gummer]

Keep in mind that what makes table salt "table salt" is the addition of a small amount of potassium iodide to keep the salt from clumping. (some use dextrose).
So if you intend to do some chemistry with it I recommend Pickling/Canning salt which is the same thing just no additives.

[APX808]

Cool, thanks for the tips guys

[crudos]

My experience is that it's pretty hard to mess up bulk salt. Keep it sealed tight, and it will outlast you and your kids.

[Burt Gummer]

Perhapse you could hire some security willing to be paid in salt, youd be paying their "salarium" now called sallary...
Todays useless factoid!

[JohnyMac]

If my memories are correct, one of my past employees use to live just south of a salt mine north of Detroit.

As we sat on his deck watching barges of salt go south and empty barges go north on a river that connects Lake Huron and Lake St. Clair; he told me that the mine (s) are so big they go under the river into Canada.

Sorry...Way to much information...

[Nemo]

Perhapse you could hire some security willing to be paid in salt, youd be paying their "salarium" now called sallary...
Todays useless factoid!

If you were planning that, you would need to find employees who were willing to work and be worth their salt. 

Nemo   

[thedigininja]

Just so you guys know it is possible to buy CHEAP salt. I thought I struck a bargain a while back but it ended up being so shit that I chucked it. In a sealed pack it turned to rocks and actually had, what I believe to be, sand and bits of stone in it. Also I can remember during the nutritional science part of my studies that because of something to do with iodine's effect on the thyroid it makes it easier for our bodies to process. So for consumption purposes iodised is better than pure rock salt. A little off topic but I thought some might find it useful.

[thatGuy]

The iodine is there to keep you from getting goiters.. Stock both though because you can't use table salt for pickling, curing or salting. You can buy salt cheap from your local water conditioning supply. Its called solar salt.

[thedigininja]

Stock both though because you can't use table salt for pickling, curing or salting.

I've never tried any salting but as far as I know with pickling it's just due to the fact that the additives make for an unclear pickling brine particularly iodine which has a tendency to darken what you're pickling and the difference in volume which also causes difficulties with curing. It also causes it to have a SLIGHT bitterness.  So you COULD use iodised salt if you had to you just SHOULDN'T if you have the option.  To my knowledge it has no effect on the quality or longevity.

[Kbop]

While on the subject;
you can use salt for livestock and it can help make up for mineral deficiencies in your soil.
- bait for game, I know deer love cattle salt licks.
- a fairly cheep source for salt is solar 'water softener' salt.  it is used in home water softeners $7 for an 80Lb bag. 
it isn't pure NaCl but would work for curing, flavoring and brining (not pickling, too many other minerals).

[Burt Gummer]

  it isn't pure NaCl but would work for curing, flavoring and brining (not pickling, too many other minerals).

Thanks Kbop I always wondered about that.

[JohnyMac]

I have put away 50 lbs of salt as part of my preps. Reading all of this unfortunately it was the Morton table type. I guess I need to get some pickling salt now.

See, you can teach a old dog a new trick. Thx folks. 

[Burt Gummer]

Hold on Jmac... I red that you can use it for pickling just the additives make it a little cloudy.
I wouldn't suggest the water softener salt though...

[thatGuy]

Solar Salt is made by evaporating brine or sea water in open ponds. It is good to go.. or atleast these folks seem to think so,

http://www.urbanoutdoorskills.com/meatinsalt.html

The rub is that it still theoretically contains the organic forms that were in it at the time of evaporation and as such does not get a food grade stamp but aside from that it is sea salt.. even more so because it hasn't been processed. This is the same salt that every navy ever used to salt down the bully beef they took to sea.

Culligan Salt page

[thedigininja]

Yeah I've always used table salt for all my pickles.
This is the first time I've heard of solar salt, I'll have to read up on it sometime but it sounds to basically be the sediment that you're left with after distilling salt water which I've always thought could be useful.  As I alluded to earlier though, after my previous experience on budget salt, I'll rather stick to names that I trust for now.