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What are Some Less Known Uses of Salt?

Deborah Ng
Deborah Ng

If you're like most people, you consider salt to be a popular table condiment used to enhance the flavor of food. You're not wrong, but did you know it has many other uses as well?

  • Test your eggs — If you're unsure of how fresh your eggs might be, try this experiment: fill a mug with water and add a pinch of salt. If the egg floats, consider it fresh. If the egg sinks, it's probably old.
  • Stain fighter — To remove wet ink stains from the carpet, cover the stain with salt. Let sit over night and vacuum. The salt should have absorbed all the ink.
  • Rid your garden of pests — Pour salt on snails and slugs and watch them disappear before your eyes. It will also repel ants.
  • Fish prep — Before removing the scales from a fish, soak it in salt water. Removal will be much easier.
  • Hang clothes outside in the winter — If you add a little salt to your rinse cycle, your clothes won't freeze if hung outside on a cold day. In addition, a clothes line soaked in it doesn't freeze either.
  • Clean the bathroom — Mixed with turpentine, salt will help to remove the yellowed spots that appear on old white bathroom fixtures.
  • Freshen your breath — Use it as a mouthwash or gargle or add a little baking soda and use to brush teeth.
  • Easy peeling — By boiling eggs in salt water, the shells will be easier to peel.
  • Neutralize smelly pipes — Add to some boiling water and pour down the sink to eliminate stinky pipes.
  • High peaks — Add a dash to egg white for stiff, high peaks when making meringue or other baked treats.
  • Enhance the flavor of coffee and tea — a pinch in coffee grinds or added to a cup of tea is said to enhance the flavor of each of these beverages.
  • Fire safety — Pour common household salt on a kitchen fire to extinguish.
  • Keep clothes bright — Add 0.5 cup (136.5 grams) to your wash water to prevent fading.
  • Shine silver — Shine tarnished silver by rubbing it with salt.
  • Remove mildew — A mixture of salt and lemon juice will help to remove mildew from tubs, showers and tile.
  • Kill weeds — Pour it directly on weeds to kill them.
  • Remove odors — If your hands smell like onion or garlic after prepping vegetables, rub them with a paste made from salt and lemon.

The above is only a small sampling of the different things salt can do. In reality, there are hundreds of uses for household table or kosher salt. Bet you don't look at it the same way again!

Discussion Comments

anon97765

i own a resort where there is a lot of salt in the ground and water. anyway that i can use them in the resort?

anon76201

helped me with my science fair project.

anon63304

correct me if i am wrong, but I believe that for testing eggs, if the egg sinks it is considered fresh and if it doesn't then it will be considered spoiled.

anon2759

To quote a colleague: "there's not a lot of things that a high salt content won't kill."

anon2690

Will salt kill Trees

anon351

great helped me with my homework

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    • A bowl of kosher salt.
      By: Viktor
      A bowl of kosher salt.
    • Soaking a clothes line in salt can keep it from freezing.
      By: Michael Flippo
      Soaking a clothes line in salt can keep it from freezing.
    • Table salt in a salt shaker.
      By: Ruslan Kudrin
      Table salt in a salt shaker.
    • Some people put a pinch of salt in the grounds to enhance the flavor of the coffee.
      By: picsfive
      Some people put a pinch of salt in the grounds to enhance the flavor of the coffee.
    • Salt mixed with baking soda can be an effective toothpaste.
      By: Vidady
      Salt mixed with baking soda can be an effective toothpaste.
    • Salt can be used as a mouthwash.
      By: Piotr Marcinski
      Salt can be used as a mouthwash.
    • Add a pinch of salt to a meringue batter for stiffer peaks.
      By: nanjan
      Add a pinch of salt to a meringue batter for stiffer peaks.
    • Some people promote rinsing the mouth out with salt water to promote healing after a mouth or dental injury.
      By: MediablitzImages
      Some people promote rinsing the mouth out with salt water to promote healing after a mouth or dental injury.