All Things Salt

[Halfapint]

I'm looking to up my salt game. Besides being a mineral that we require, it also makes things taste good! That's kind of important when food may taste like garbage in a SHTF/PAW world.

I asked on one of my FB groups prior to posting here and one of the ladies gave me this reply when I said "what kind of salt should I stock"

"1) Store iodinized salt. Lots of it. For eating, Mostly for preggoes and kids. iodine deficiency is a scary thing
2) Store human rock salt for pickles, same with kosher salt. Store a ton or more if you plan to brine or salt cure meat.
3) Store large rocks of Himalayan pink for post apoc. It sores the best in rock form and is full of trace minerals that you'll want.
4)store a variety of animal stock salts. Get friendly with the dude at the feed store, learn the brands. Stock salts can contain a multi mineral load, antibiotics, and antidepressants that they are not required to put on the label.
5)Store salt licks for baiting hunting sites

Most importantly do not invest all of your salt budget into any one type."

I mostly agree with this list, minus the iodine salt, because most places I've read say iodine will lose most of its potency in 5 years. The salt will still be good and can be used, but you may need to eat a lot more of it to get the iodine you need. I also don't know about storing rocks of Himalayan pink, I can get the tubs from Costco for cheaper than a brick of it and I don't have to chip and grind it.

I'm mostly thinking about "stock salt" the animal kind. She brought up a good point on that stuff, it may have a lot of things not required to be labeled due to animal use. I was actually thinking about calling Morton to see if they put any of that stuff in it. I cant imagine they would have different plants to process the salt for animals and humans.

What kind of salt do you stock deep?

Anyone have knowledge of Stock Salt?

How much salt do you keep on hand?

[NT2C]

The chemical compound potassium iodide (KI) is itself pretty stable provided it's kept dry, which is what you'll want to do with salt anyway. The 5-year number for iodized salt takes into account that the storage conditions probably aren't going to be ideal. However, if you also store KI tablets in sealed packages (I'd suggest vacuum sealed " 5 or 10 packs" of the 65mg dosage level) they should be good for at least 7 years, and probably quite a bit longer than that. This gives you a source of the compound that can be added to plain salt to add iodine later on.

Some iodized table salt is also treated with dextrose or sodium thiosulfate to help stabilize the potassium iodine and reduce the loss, at least according to Wikipedia.

In parts of Europe, it's also common to use potassium iodate (KIO3) instead of potassium iodide though this use is not approved by the FDA in the USA. It can still be purchased here though and I'd advise a lot of further research before considering its use for this. However, I don't think there's any prohibition on importing treated salt from Germany which uses KIO3.

Potassium Iodide Tablets - Shelf Life Extension

[flybynight]

Honestly, I think you are looking at this wrong. Salt is cheap. Buy a little extra and be done with it. If after five years there is no salt to be had, it aint coming back and you are going to have to procure a new means of getting it.



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[CrossCut]

I keep some lite salt in the pantry in case I needed to make some homemade ORS, it adds potassium. Never tried it, suspect gator-aid tastes better but might be a shortage of that in the apocalypse.

Curing salts (with sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite) like Morton Tender Quick for preserving meat/fish without refrigeration.

And another source of iodine besides table salt is Betadine, either internally in water purification strength or even just applied topically.

[Halfapint]

Honestly, I think you are looking at this wrong. Salt is cheap. Buy a little extra and be done with it. If after five years there is no salt to be had, it aint coming back and you are going to have to procure a new means of getting it.

I get this, however iodine isn’t a good thing when preserving food or making fermented foods. So having a veriety of salts.

While I personally live near water so making sea salt wouldn’t be terribly difficult, others do not.

[flybynight]

I look forward to hearing your tale of success trading fish, shells and salt at fort Halfpint via the evening drums story hour or the morning smoke signal

[NT2C]

I look forward to hearing your tale of success trading fish, shells and salt at fort Halfpint via the evening drums story hour or the morning smoke signal

So, you won't be on the evening ham net or have a ham in your community?

[TacAir]

While I no longer use iodine for water treatment, having a vial of Polar Pure to have a source of iodine is not a bad idea....

[Halfapint]

I look forward to hearing your tale of success trading fish, shells and salt at fort Halfpint via the evening drums story hour or the morning smoke signal

well besides the historical references of salt being equal in worth to gold, and that people got paid in salt. I might just make my PAW/SHTF fortune in salt trading. But this isn't really about me, I'm more interested in what other people have and what if any salt stores people have.

I actually found these, and may buy half a dozen blocks. They are cheaper than the ground Himalayan salt from Costco and would easily be stacked/stored for future use. Plus salt slab trout/salmon is amazing!

[NT2C]

I actually found these, and may buy half a dozen blocks. They are cheaper than the ground Himalayan salt from Costco and would easily be stacked/stored for future use. Plus salt slab trout/salmon is amazing!

From the same site