City Stacker: Prepping+

How to Keep Salt Fresh Forever: A Prepper's Guide to Storage

City Stacker — Thu, 28 Mar 2024 17:45:40 GMT

Kosher, pink, and Redmond salt

Article at a Glance:

Essential for everyday cooking and seasoning.
Difficult to obtain or produce in a SHTF (survival) situation.
Extremely long shelf life with proper storage in airtight containers.
Save money by buying in bulk, especially during sales.
Crucial for food preservation methods (curing, pickling, canning).
Valuable as a barter item in times of scarcity.

Keep Your Salt Fresh Forever: Essential Storage Tips

Salt is a kitchen staple we often take for granted. But did you know, that with the right storage, this essential mineral can truly last forever? Preserving the quality and usability of your salt is crucial, whether you're a seasoned prepper or simply want to avoid those annoying clumps in your shaker. Here's how to ensure your salt stays fresh and functional for years to come.

Why Does Salt Spoil?

Salt itself has been around for millions of years and doesn't go bad in the traditional sense. It's the impurities and how we store salt that pose a problem:

Moisture: Salt is hygroscopic, meaning it loves to absorb moisture. This leads to clumping, changes in texture, and even the potential for mold growth in extreme cases.
Additives: Iodized table salt contains iodine, which degrades over time, losing its intended health benefits.
Contaminants: If open salt containers are exposed to strong odors or debris, it can affect the taste and quality.

The Keys to Eternal Salt

Choose the Right Salt: While all salt types have an impressive shelf life, for the longest storage, opt for pure salts without additives. Kosher salt and standard sea salt are excellent choices.
Airtight is Everything: Invest in quality airtight containers. Mason jars, heavy-duty food-grade plastic containers, or even vacuum-sealed bags are great options. Avoid those flimsy cardboard salt boxes!
Location Matters: Store your salt in a cool, dry, and dark location. Cupboards away from the stove and dishwasher are ideal.

Additional Tips

Rice to the Rescue: A few grains of uncooked rice in your salt shaker can help absorb excess moisture.
Smaller is Better: For everyday use, keep a small amount in your shaker and refill from your larger storage container to minimize exposure to air.
Revive Clumpy Salt: If your salt clumps up, don't despair! Spread it on a baking sheet and bake at a low temperature to remove moisture.

Special Considerations

Bulk Purchases: If buying in bulk, divide your salt into smaller, more manageable containers for easier storage. For instance, consider dividing a 25 lb bag of salt into 1-gallon mylar containers or several airtight jars.
Avoid Metal Lids: Glass jars are excellent for storing salt, but it's crucial to avoid metal lids because they can rust over time, contaminating the salt and potentially leading to an unappetizing metallic flavor.
Skip the Oxygen Absorbers: While oxygen absorbers are beneficial for maximizing the lifespan of most foods stored in Mylar bags, they are often unnecessary for salt. It naturally resists spoilage, and oxygen absorbers can sometimes cause the salt to clump tightly within the bag.

The Importance of Salt Grain Sizes for Preppers

Fine grain sea salt

While all salt offers the same preservative qualities, the size of the grains significantly impacts its uses in a preparedness scenario. Here's a look at the most common types and their best applications:

Powdered Salt: Extremely fine grains dissolve quickly, making it ideal for brines and solutions where even texture matters. However, it clumps easily and is not suitable for long-term storage.
Fine Salt (Table Salt): The most common type. Due to its small size, it's easy to measure and blend into dishes but dissolves too quickly for methods like curing.
Kosher Salt: Larger, irregular grains make it ideal for seasoning during cooking, as chefs can easily pinch and distribute it. It's also excellent for curing meats due to its slower dissolving rate compared to table salt. Kosher salt itself has larger crystals than table salt, and the flakes tend to be irregular in shape. This is why it dissolves slower and has a milder, less salty flavor than table salt
Coarse Salt: Large crystals offer a satisfying crunch and are often used as finishing salt. They also work well for rimming cocktail glasses.

Prepper Recommendations

Must-Haves:
- Kosher Salt: A large supply remains crucial for its versatility in cooking, preserving, and potential bartering.
- Fine Salt: A large supply of fine salt is essential for everyday cooking and familiarity for most home chefs. Being faced with unfamiliar ingredients during a survival situation could cause unnecessary stress.
Good Additions: Coarse salt for special occasions, flavor finishing, and potential bartering.
Avoid: Prioritize pure varieties of kosher and fine salt over heavily processed or powdered versions for maximum shelf life.

Remember: When prepping, salt's functionality and longevity are far more important than gourmet aesthetics. Choosing the right grain sizes for your intended use ensures you're well-prepared for anything.

Beyond Basic Sea Salt: Gourmet Varieties

While standard sea salt is excellent for long-term storage, gourmet salts offer unique flavors and potential trace mineral benefits worth considering for preppers seeking variety and potential added nutritional value. Here's a look at some popular choices:

Redmond Real Salt, Fine

Redmond Real Salt: Harvested from an ancient underground salt deposit in Utah, this salt is known for its high mineral content and spectrum of colors from trace elements. It can add both flavor complexity and a potential boost of minerals to your diet.

Kirkland Pink Sale, Fine

Himalayan Pink Salt: Visually striking with a pinkish hue due to trace minerals like iron. It's mined from ancient salt deposits in Pakistan and offers a subtly different flavor profile than sea salt.

Celtic Sea Salt, Fine

Sea Salt (Specialty): Sea salts sourced from specific regions (Celtic Sea Salt, Hawaiian Black Salt, etc.) boast unique flavors and mineral compositions based on their origin and harvesting methods. These can be a great way to add depth and interest to your meals.

Considerations for Preppers

Cost vs. Benefit: Gourmet salts are typically more expensive than standard sea salt. Preppers must weigh the added cost against their desired flavor enhancement or potential mineral boost.
Storage: Like regular sea salt, gourmet varieties still require proper airtight storage to maintain their quality.
Prioritize the Basics: If on a tight budget, ensure you have a solid supply of regular sea salt or kosher salt before investing heavily in gourmet options.

Bottom Line: Gourmet salts can be a worthwhile addition to your preparedness pantry, adding flavor variety and potential health benefits. However, it's essential to balance them with a focus on the long-lasting reliability of standard sea salt or kosher salt.

How Much Salt Should a Prepper Store?

Unfortunately, there's no one-size-fits-all answer to how much salt you should stack. The right amount depends on several factors:

Household Size: The more people in your household, the more salt you'll need for daily consumption and potential food preservation tasks.
Desired Timeframe: Are you prepping for short-term disruptions, or aiming for years of self-sufficiency? Your goal determines the quantity needed.
Dietary Preferences: If you generally eat a high-sodium diet, your baseline salt use will be higher than someone who cooks mostly with fresh ingredients.
Other Intended Uses: Consider whether you will use salt for preserving meats, bartering, or livestock needs. These significantly increase your storage requirements.

Recommendations

Minimum: Aim for at least a year's usual consumption worth of salt per person. Here's how to estimate that amount:
- Conservative Prepper Estimate: Plan on 2-3 teaspoons of salt per day per person. This provides ample room for cooking, occasional extra use, and a safety margin.
- Calculation: 2-3 teaspoons/day x 365 days/year = 730 - 1095 teaspoons/year
- Conversion to Usable Amounts: There are about 4.9 teaspoons of salt per ounce. To convert teaspoons to pounds, you'll need to divide by 16 ounces per pound. So, this translates to roughly 9 - 13 pounds of salt per person per year.
Ideal: Start with a several-year supply and gradually increase it as your budget and storage space allow.
Remember: With proper storage, salt can last essentially forever. It is an investment worth making to ensure you have this vital resource on hand.

Helpful Resources

Many online resources offer preparedness calculators that can help estimate your salt needs (and other supplies) based on your household size and desired level of preparedness.

For example, this calculator from Wallaby recommends 5 pounds of salt per person per year. Keep in mind that doesn’t allow for extra use, safety margin, etc.

Emergency Food Supply Calculator

Where to Buy

These are some of my favorite salts and storage solutions:

Redmond Real Sea Salt - Locally sourced in Utah
Kirkland Signature Pink Salt - Sourced in Pakistan
Celtic Sea Salt - Sourced from the Celtic Sea in France
Morton Course Kosher Salt - Available in most supermarkets
1-gallon mylar bags

Summary

Proper storage is key for long-lasting salt. Use airtight containers like Mylar bags or food-grade buckets. Choose between fine or kosher salt based on your needs. For long-term preparedness, consider stockpiling 10 pounds of salt per person per year, though individual needs may vary. Avoid iodized table salt which degrades over time.

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links, and I may earn commissions from qualifying purchases as an Amazon Associate. However, please note that any potential compensation I receive will not affect your purchase in any way.

40 Emergency 'Go Bag' Essentials From Amazon

City Stacker — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 22:18:14 GMT

My Everyday Carry

Here’s a list of my complete disaster preparation gear. Stay tuned for future posts with in-depth explanations.

How to Get Out of Dodge With Everything

City Stacker — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 00:23:54 GMT

In response to my last video on getting out of the city with my silver and gold stack, one of you said my case was too big.

Wait until you get a look at my real go bag. This is my “Get out of Dodge with everything” hard case.

You in San Francisco, also known as Bip City due to its smash-and-grab epidemic, might want to stick around.

And you hikers also, that are worried about thieves busting your car windows while you’re out on the trail might be interested in the solution I’ve developed as part of our get out of Dodge strategy.

Go case loaded up and locked in the back of my Jeep Grand Cherokee

Front and center, the central part of our “go bag” strategy is this rather large hard case from Nanuk. It’s called the 975W. It comes in different configurations, but all are based on a 177-liter waterproof hard shell case.

“W” in the model means it’s wheeled with four (4) strong polyurethane wheels with stainless steel ball bearings. Outside are two (2) oversized retractable handles designed for team lift, one person on each side if need be.

TSA compatible lock upgrades to case

What makes this case special are the upgrades we’ve done. First, we replaced two of the built-in latches with TSA-approved lockable latches. The upgrade kit is sold separately.

Second, we bought four TSA padlocks, also made by Nanuk, which fit into metal grommets along the rim of the lid. One trick we found was to install the locks upside down and with a little pressure they will lock. Another tip, since these are TSA padlocks they’ll open with a standard TSA key. I got mine on eBay.

There are actually seven different TSA key designs, 001 through 007. I forget which these are, but on eBay they usually sell them as a pair of the most commonly used sizes - 003 and 007. The advantage to having the TSA keys to go with these padlocks is that it just makes it so much easier to unlock than spinning these padlock wheels.

That could be a potential downside of course if thieves are packing TSA keys in their toolkit. Just use non-TSA locks if that’s a concern.

Now, let’s look at it all locked up and loaded into the back of my SUV. The size fits great in my Grand Cherokee, nearly taking up all the space. My Jeep is equipped with cargo tie-down anchor points which make it very easy to lock down the case using a cable or chain together with a lock.

The case itself is so big that the only way to access it is by opening the hatch. Otherwise, it’s not going through a broken window or an open side door.

Now it should be coming into focus how this serves double-duty for us as first a pre-loaded ready-to-go emergency case. Taking the usual go bag concept we’re always told to have ready, taking it to the next level where we’re really prepared to survive an extended emergency away from home. And second, as a portable secure storage for our valuables when we’re away from home either traveling or enjoying outdoor activities.

That’s you, San Francisco. While no solution is going to offer 100% protection from determined robbers, making ourselves a harder target will push these thieves to look elsewhere.

We bring this case when we’re traveling, either into the cities or at the trailheads. We have to have some kind of gear and valuables with us during those trips. This is the solution we came up with which I think is better than trying to hide backpacks and handbags under a coat.

This all started with the pandemic really. When it first broke out in 2020 they had all the state parks closed here in Oregon and even put up yellow caution tape on wide parking areas along the coast to deter visitors. There was just nowhere to get out of the house to go do something. In response to those lockdown measures, we turned to dispersed camping, outside of established campgrounds on public lands.

We went through so much gear trying what works and what doesn’t, what is necessary, and what should stay at home.

Now, for what we always have loaded inside the case. Let’s unpack it.

Warmth and Clothing

1) A backpack by Shimoda, the Action X50. This design is specifically built for photographers but works great as an all-arounder. It’s low-key, rugged, and water-resistant. I like it because it’s very grey-man and generic-looking. I keep my change of clothes ready in here and it’s good to have this larger size in case we’re forced to go on foot.

2) Several Pendleton wool blankets. This style of blanket goes for $400 to $500 new but we got ours at a thrift store for much less. Wool is an exceptional choice for outdoor camping and survival situations. It retains its insulation properties even when wet. Wool's natural breathability reduces sweat buildup. And wool is naturally less flammable than many synthetic fibers, providing a level of safety around campfires.

3) Here’s a Pendleton packable synthetic blanket. I got this as an impulse buy at Costco… I think it was around $25. This has been one of the most useful items I’ve ever bought on impulse. When folded up and zipped closed it works as a decent pillow, not great but better than nothing. Open it up and it’s a decent blanket or throw it on the ground to make a picnic. It’s coated with a water-resistant coating which may put some people off though.

Camp

4) A 10x15-foot rain fly tarp, good for setting up a sun or rain shelter.

5) A Knives of Alaska Bush Camp straight-blade knife. It’s good for making kindling to start a fire. I’ve had this one for over a decade and it’s been a great knife. The D2 steel it’s made from may not be for everyone because, although it holds a sharp edge better than most, it’s also more difficult to sharpen.

6) A battery bank with a built-in inverter, good for up to 80 watts. We can charge our cell phones, radios, drones, rechargeable AA batteries, etc.

7) A Thermacell mosquito repeller that runs off the same fuel canister as the JetBoil. The Thermacell really does work. It’s not a gimmick. It’s not going to offer 100% protection from mosquitos, especially if it’s windy outside. But it does help, at least here in the Oregon outdoors. Tested and verified.

Food and Water

8) A ReadyWise 7-day emergency supply of food and water for one person. I found this at our local Costco warehouse. For two of us, this is good for 3.5 days… more than enough to get set up in a new location.

9) A #10 can of Mountain House beef stroganoff. This will extend our food supply by a few days. Be sure to have a can opener in your bag and a way to boil water. You can reconstitute this by adding boiling water to the contents of the can, covering, stirring, and waiting 5 minutes. This brand, Mountain House, is tops in my opinion along with Peak Refuel.

10) Water is heavy to pack around so instead of stocking up on ready-to-drink water we have the MSR Guardian Gravity Water Purifier. These don’t come cheap but are very highly rated. Another popular choice is the MSR Guardian which comes with a hand pump instead of gravity feed. I opted against that model because several people in the reviews said the pump handle was prone to breaking. Since I don’t want my gear to let me down in a crisis I opted for the more reliable gravity-fed system.

11) A personal-sized Sawyer Products SP2101 MINI Water Filtration System. You can use these two ways; either use the straw to drink directly from your water source or use the included drinking pouch.

12) To boil water we use the JetBoil system. Originally we got the Flash system along with a French press so we could make coffee on the road. Later we got the MicroMo cooking system which still makes coffee with the French press but is a little more versatile in its capability.

The Jetboil Flash is optimized for lightning-fast water boiling if you mostly need hot drinks or rehydrated meals, while the Jetboil MicroMo offers simmer control for basic cooking in addition to boiling.

13) A cookware set by GSI, the Pinnacle Dualist II Camping Cook Set.

Hygiene

14) Some mountain money, also known as toilet paper.

15) Venture large (12x12) body wipes. Let's face it, camping and staying fresh don't always go hand in hand. These wipes come to the rescue when showers aren't an option. While they might not give you that squeaky-clean feeling, they're big, thick, stay moist, and way more effective than baby wipes!

Additional Preps

16) A yellow 13-liter dry sack with a bunch of small items you need for camping such as a can opener, insect repellent, water purification tablets, and fire starter. Just a bunch of random little things.

17) A red dry sack that makes up our dust and radiation personal protection. Again, I won’t get into this bag just yet.

18) Some things may seem missing because we keep those either in the car, such as a first aid kit, or they’re part of my EDC, my everyday carry.

19) It ain’t cheap but the Thule Motion XT L Rooftop Cargo Carrier is absolutely worth the price! It looks sleek, provides tons of extra storage, and is super easy to install on aftermarket roof crossbars. It's incredibly secure and surprisingly quiet, even at highway speeds. We drove through heavy rain and everything inside stayed bone-dry. Thule's quality and design make it well worth the investment.

We’ll look at all these additional preps at another time.