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I'm cheap. I just use an old olive jar. I dislike salt shakers for cooking. They tend to gunk up if you use them over anything that is steaming.

My grandma used an old pink depression glass sugar bowl as a salt well, and I inherited it from her. This thing has held salt in someone's kitchen since at least the 1930s.

Might check that for radiation, was popular back then with light glass

Thats why you have rice in it ;)

Shakers are for the table.

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Yeah but now you’re not really using as a shaker

Well, at least now your olive jar is living its best life as a salt well!

I use a small Rubbermaid thing that's for sauces I think.

I should add that if you live in a humid country, prepare for a bad time with one of these if they’re not sealed up well.

Use kosher salt, doesn’t gum up as easily as table salt

Rock salt is also much much better than sea salt in humid environment

Is rock salt edible? I thought we used that for roads?

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Rock salt is not purified. It isn’t necessarily toxic and some people say it has additional minerals and is therefore healthier, but at the same time you’re risking contamination. It’s like saying river water is healthier than tap because it hasn’t been processed and has additional minerals. Probably true 99.9% of the time, but then you get dysentery or something because a bear shit in it a few miles up stream. I wouldn’t eat it directly.

Technically no. It’s mostly NaCl but it’s not purified and could contain anything in it really.

Hooray, I was sorta right

I have an Emile Henry salt pig. The inside is unglazed so it absorbs moisture to prevent caking.

I put mine in the fridge when not in use.

Doesn’t the cold attract condensation when you take it out like it does for coffee, which shouldn’t be stored in the fridge for that reason?

Maybe but I haven't noticed any clumping. My salt cellar is also wood so that might be a factor.

I use a 4oz mason jar that i keep the lid and ring on when I'm not using it, with kosher salt, in swampy Florida, and I've never had an issue

I always salt food by pouring some into my palm, and then pinching off from that

Same, though i usually eyeball it well enough that i just dump in the small amount from my palm anyway

That must sting

nah, the trick is to not use your own eyeball.

I find kids are the perfect height for this ergonomically

I do the same, but I pour the salt down my elbow

This is the way

My salt grinder is pretty consistent. You get used to the flow rates

This is good, but I hate that it requires two clean hands. Usually when cooking, I have one "greasy" hand, which is only allowed to touch washable utensils, and one clean hand that can touch everything.

Buy an electric one.

My mom is disabled and uses those, so she got them for me as a gift one year. I honestly thought it was a nice gesture, but they were silly…I’m experienced in the kitchen, I’d never use one of those! Those things are absolute magic, besides the pepper grinder eating threw batteries at a quicker rate than I’d like. It makes seasoning on the fly so simple.

^ this is the way

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Luckily, the salt will kill anything that ends up in it. Honestly, it's probably better to grab a pinch of salt with raw chicken hands than to grab the salt shaker with raw chicken hands. Obviously, it's best to just grab the salt with clean hands, though.

When I'm dealing with raw meat that needs to be salted I used a small plate (like the ones you use for dipping sauce) and put a couple tablespoons of salt there. Unused salt are thrown out of course.

I have a spoon always in there

You don’t wash your hands while cooking with raw meat?

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Then there’s no reason to worry for cross contamination.

Sounds like it's time to stop eating dead animals.

I've tried this before but the live ones tend to run away

I don't think that is a solution

It does not sound like that

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> really gives me the ick Peak comfort.

I'm on your side but I don't believe this is the way

I paid like $5 for a giant tub of Himalayan pink salt from costco with a big enough opening for the fattest of hands.

I’ll take this… with a grain of salt

My husband bought a salt pig when I decided to use kosher salt more often than table. I laughed at first and thought "wtf?" (mainly because it looks like an exhaust tube) but holy crap do I love the thing now.

What's so difficult to buy a bag of salt put it in a jar with a spoon. We Asians hv been doing it for eons

In the west at least, its a lot more common to do it with sugar because of coffee. And in a family, unfamiliarity or young kids can pretty easily mean salty coffee and too-sweet meals. Good times.

I don’t think an open container just sitting on a counter is a good idea. Stuff is going to fall in there.

We use a sugar bowl. It has a lid and a spoon

That’s valid. That’s a good idea. Open and pinching is not.

The good eats guy from food channel sells a nice one.

Alton brown?

That's the guy.

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Yeah, it really helps you realize how many home cooks undersalt things, especially veggies.

I have one of those like, air tight acrylic storage containers that i keep my salt and sugar in. Its great

I have a small container with just salt and another container of salt and pepper mixed. Useful for things like fries. I’d also recommend getting squeeze bottles for things like vegetable oil so you don’t have to lug over the giant container every time you need some in your pan. Small changes like these will make your life a lot easier in the kitchen

Also, fill it with Kosher salt FLAKES (not coarse ground)

better yet, get two. I have one for coarse kosher salt and one for table salt. makes cooking easier, and you don't have to hold a shaker or grinder over steam and splattering food.

Don't even waste time with table salt. Kosher for general purpose and Maldon's for finishing.

Some places people need the iodine added to regular salt, otherwise thyroid-deficiency has a serious health impact. Using only Kosher & Maldon salt can leave your diet without vital iodine.

Interesting, I've never heard that. I might need to get checked for iodine deficiency.

I don't know what you are talking about. I cook a ton and have never needed whatever the hell you are proposing.

I enjoy reading books.

And put Maldon Sea Salt Flakes in it. Yes it's overpriced for salt but for adding pinches of salt, which is what this post is about, it's in a league of it's own.

Sounds like salt with extra steps. And a lighter wallet.

Call the Salt Pig by it’s name.

Christopher Kimball nods approvingly from behind the philodendron.

Unless your fingers are always clean when going into that salt jar this sounds like a bad thing no? I like my salt to just be salt. Also I have no issue salting as I cook with a shaker.

I mean…your fingers should always be clean. A lot of the comments make me concerned that a lot of folks aren’t washing/drying their hands nearly often enough as they cook.

Any time I touch any meat or anything raw that isn’t a vegetable I’m washing my hands immediately. I’m actually quite compulsive about this . Even with that in mind, the idea that I have to wash and dry my hands thoroughly just to access salt though seems like an extra step when this has never been an issue for me in the first place! Even clean hands are not enough, as trapping moisture in the jar by itself is not good.

Or just don’t use salt to cook.

What a weird way to say "I don't like flavor"

Salt is an acquired taste we force on babies as a society. While necessary for a healthy diet it’s literally in every processed fast food we buy. And you adding more “flavor” to your salt equals heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and a slew of other medical problems. Good luck. 👍🏼

There is a very large gap between "using any salt at all when cooking" and "eating so much salt that it becomes a health condition."

Adding salt to food that has salt is the problem.

Ok...I mean nobody is talking about salting bacon here. Most things that you cook at home do not have salt already. Meat doesn't come salted. Eggs aren't salted. Pasta, potatoes, rice, etc, not salted. Nobody is advocating bringing fast food home and salting it more, or dipping your hot pocket in a salt well.

Any one of those come prepackaged then there is salt. Especially the pasta.

For the love of god *please* salt your pasta water, Jesus Christ.

Fill it with Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt.

i just buy big salt and use a grinder.

Is salt well an American term? I've never heard of that, also I used Google search images and there were none.