Salt seasons stored staples like rice and beans, and it preserves meat, fish and vegetables by curing and brining when the power is out. It also helps replace the sodium your body loses through heat, hard work or illness.
Salt keeps indefinitely when it stays dry, so the choice comes down to type, amount and packaging. Stock more than your kitchen uses now, because preserving food takes far more salt than seasoning it.
- Quantity: Plan on about 8 to 10 pounds per person for a year of cooking, and add more if you plan to cure meat or brine vegetables.
- Type: Keep iodized table salt for daily cooking and non-iodized canning or pickling salt for brines.
- Additives: Choose pure salt with no anti-caking agents for preserving, so your brine stays clear and pickles keep their color.
- Moisture: Seal salt in food-grade buckets or glass jars, since humidity turns it into a hard block.
- Storage: Set containers off concrete floors and away from metal shelving, which salt corrodes over time.
