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94 Comments
- Rockout, on 10/11/2007, -3/+8010. Boil water: Water will boil quicker if salted.
Correct me if I'm wrong... but putting salt in the water will cause the water to boil at a higher temperature, so it should take longer to boil.
Boils hotter, not faster, right? - andoru, on 10/11/2007, -6/+5417. Put it on snails! SEE THEM FIZZ AND BUBBLE AND DIE HORRIBLY!! MWAHAHAHAAA!!!1!!
- Urusai, on 10/11/2007, -0/+46You can also use salt to rub into wounds, for those less-than-amicable relationships.
- Caruthers, on 10/11/2007, -1/+37You're right. Adding salt to water raises the boiling temperature and lowers the freezing temperature but will not accelerate either phase change.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -5/+3216. Blood pressure: A pinch of salt with every meal will contribute to a much greater risk of cerebral haemorrhage.
- Me1000, on 10/11/2007, -1/+231.Fresh eggs: Want to know if your eggs are fresh? Put an egg in a cup of salted water. If it sinks, it is bad, if it floats it's fresh.
2.Ants: Sprinkle salt at doorways, window sills and anywhere else ants manage to get into your house. Ants won't walk across salt and they will stay outside where they belong.
3.Cooking apples: You can improve the taste of cooking apples by adding a little salt.
4.Mix - matched hose: Can't find a pair of hose the same color? They will become the same color if you boil them in salted water.
5.Oven mess: Ever have a problem with pies bubbling over while baking? Next time this happens, put enough salt on the mess to cover the spill. This will stop the burnt smell and will turn light and crusty from the oven's heat so you can just wipe it off the oven floor when cool.
6.Stop discoloring food: Apples and potatoes won't discolor after peeling if you cover them in salted water.
7.Frost: If you hang your clothes outside during winter, you will like this one. Use salt in your final rinse to keep your clothes from freezing on the line. You can also use salt water on your clothes line to keep it from freezing too.
8.Shelling nuts: Nuts such as walnuts and pecans are easier to shell if they are soaked in salt water first.
9.Artificial flowers: Clean artificial flowers by putting them in a bag containing salt. Shake bag for well for about one minute. Take flowers out, shake off excess salt.
10.Boil water: Water will boil quicker if salted.
11.Windows: Keep your home and car windows from frosting in the winter by wiping them with a mixture of salt and water.
12.Cheese: To keep cheese from going moldy in your fridge, wrap it in a cheesecloth dampened with salt water.
13.Fresh flowers: A pinch of salt added to the water of fresh cut flowers will make them last longer.
14.Garden pests: If you find you have cabbage worms in your vegetable garden, make a mixture of 1 cup flour and half cup salt. Dust the garden morning and evening when they are damp with dew.
15.Oral care: For cankers, abscesses and other mouth sores, rinse your mouth with a weak solution of warm salt water several times a day. - Ayb4btu, on 10/11/2007, -1/+201.Fresh eggs: Want to know if your eggs are fresh? Put an egg in a cup of salted water. If it sinks, it is bad, if it floats it's fresh.
This should be: If it sinks, it's fresh, if it floats it's bad. - samdu, on 10/11/2007, -0/+19Call me crazy, but I add salt to cooking water for the taste.
- nick2, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1616. Buy 100 pounds of it, travel back in time when salt was used as currency. Build a massive empire. You'll be the Bill Gates of the era (in terms of wealth)!!
- anagoge, on 10/11/2007, -1/+13I didn't know about quite a few of those. Interesting uses.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -2/+12@Flashman:
Actually, no it won't. The fact is that the prepared foods we buy (canned foods, TV dinners, etc) often have way too much salt in them already. When we become used to having too much salt, we tend to over-salt our food.
That pinch of salt with ever mean is not what is causing high blood pressure. It is the four table spoons already in the food. - blankman, on 10/11/2007, -2/+10A lot of these tips are not very good ideas. Like soaking your clothes in salt water so they won't freeze. If you've ever worn clothes that got wet in the ocean after they've dried, you know how itchy salt on your clothes can be.
Also, putting salt and water on your car windows won't do much except put a lot of tiny scratches in them. If you want to stop your windows from fogging up, apply a thin layer of bar-soap.
I'm not sure about the rest, but I wouldn't put to much trust in these tips. - Authustian, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8And remember to keep a few pieces of uncooked instant rice in your salt shaker to keep the salt from getting clumpy.
- mikewitt, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8Yeah, salt does raise the boiling point. The reason that people do add salt is that bacteria don't die at 100 degrees C, they die just over that temperature (because the fluid inside them boils at about 101 deg. C); by adding a little bit of salt, you increase the boiling point of water, and guarantee that whatever you cook in that water is sterile.
- fhernand, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7It should be "TOP 10 Table Salt HACKS", with the remaining 5 turning up in various places in the comment section.
- kylesellers, on 10/11/2007, -3/+9It also melts butter. Really! Just put your hand over it and feel the heat...
- kevyn, on 10/11/2007, -2/+811: Windows: I was really hoping for a "add salt to your XP machine to make it run faster"
- ldkronos, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5Actually, I think this is actually a bad example for using salt. My understanding is that as an egg goes bad, it becomes more buoyant. Put an egg in fresh water and it will sink if its good, but as it goes bad it will start to float. Now, if you put an egg in salt water, my understanding is that it will float even it if is fresh. So what exactly happens as it goes bad? It will float higher? Unless they start levitating above the water, I'm not sure how easy it would be to tell them apart. I believe this test is better performed with fresh water.
- FreshHaikus, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6You're right. I always add salt when I'm cooking pasta so the pasta will cook faster, not so the water will boil faster. It takes longer to boil, but it happens at a higher temp. Perhaps thats what the article intended to say?
- Sippi, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5In the south you need to fill the salt-shaker a quarter of the way full of rice to help stop it from sticking together.
- SilkSteel, on 10/11/2007, -0/+420. Mix it with rubbing alcohol to clean out your resin-crusted pipes. o_O
- DiggsOnlyNeoCon, on 10/11/2007, -2/+6The pasta doesn't cook fast. Salt is added for seasoning the pasta.
- MewTwo, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5Well you don't rub actual salt on your windows. It's dissolved in the water.
- Al3x, on 10/11/2007, -4/+8A bunch of them are properties of salt but they are not practical.
#1 and #2 are the only useful/cool ones on there. (15 is common knowledge)
4. Mix - matched hose...buy a new pair? It costs a couple bucks. I can't imagine any woman needing hose so bad she will bring saltwater to boil, dip them, dry them, then put them on...neat though?
6. Stop discoloring food...again, who wants to eat food doused in ***** salt. I don't give a damned what color it is, just how it tastes.
7. Frost...who wants to wear clothes that have salt all over them? It is the same as wearing a shirt that was soaked in the ocean. This is just a property of salt...it lowers the freezing point of water (saltwater) so your clothes may not freeze on a clothes line but they'll have ***** all over them lol.
8. Shelling nuts...who is going to do this? Yes it may work, but seriously, if you have a nut cracker, you probably can deal with the extra work required to squeeze a few open. Maybe if you shell nuts for a living, but I'm sure they already know this and/or have machines to do it for them.
10. Boil water...Correct me if I'm wrong, but salt-water just has a lower boiling point than freshwater, so yes it boils faster, but you don't want salty noodles, so you might use this to hard-boil eggs, but I think hard-boiling eggs needs a high temperature...not just water with bubbles in it. Not useful.
12. Cheese...who wants to eat salty cheese??
14. Garden Pests...I'm not sure what this does to the pests, but salting soil reduces the ability of plants to absorb water...a good way to kill pests and plants. In ancient times, they used to salt the earth when leaving an area so crops could not be grown. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salting_the_earth - diggenerate, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3number 1 works with just plain water, you don't have to add salt.
- PhantomBantam, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3BREAKING: Top 10 amazing table salt hacks!
- Elranzer, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3"Cheese...who wants to eat salty cheese??"
Mmmm... salty cheese. - mroo, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Lucky.. we could have had the food poisoning DIGG effect ! :(
- Coffeedemon, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Or horrible gelatinous blobs... works great until they resolidify and put you in a world of goop.
- AROERS, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3a headline without using the word 'amazing'
- TEMM, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3The discoloration comes from oxidization on the surface of the fruit, not from it drying out. Submerging sliced fruit prevents contact with air and thus oxidization. Water with citric acid also works better than just plain water, or even just tossing the fruit in lime juice or lemon juice will prevent browning.
- SurrealDream, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Aren't they usually made out of metal? Surely you wouldn't want to put your steel hoe in salt water...
/acoughcough - simX, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2How many of these are old wives tales, and how many of these are legitimate uses of salt? I'm dubious of lists like this without explanations as to why each tip works. A couple of them have to do with making water boil faster and preventing stuff from freezing which I'm pretty sure are true, but what about the other stuff?
- adz999, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4Correct it should be "HACKED" and TOP 15
- brocej, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Here's another great use of salt. Use it to balance a glass of water on its edge!
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/319944/impressive_party_trick/ - IneffablePolk, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3#1 I wouldn't trust this. If you put enough salt in the water you can make just about anything float.
#2 Ants are persistent little bugs. They will find a way around the salt.
#3 Wasn't this list for non-cooking salt uses? Besides, this is a matter of taste.
#4 Maybe if you don't mind salty hosiery. And if you did this you would just end up with another mis-matched pair once you found the mates.
#5 If that works then it's actually pretty cool.
#6 Someone commented that any water will work. Gonna take his word for it.
#7 Maybe if you don't mind salty clothes.
#8 I can only imagine that soaking them in any water would soften the shell.
#9 Any kind of abrasive would work. Sand. Sugar. Anything of the sort.
#10 This sounds fishy, but even if it works you'd end up with the worst cup of tea in recorded history.
#11 I can't imagine that the layer of salt you'd be left with would be great for visibility.
#12 So will Saran Wrap or a Zip-Lock bag.
#13 That's just a bad idea.
#14 From Wikipedia: "Salting the earth refers to the practice of spreading salt on fields to make them incapable of being used for crop-growing." Yeah, that's gonna do wonders for your garden.
#15 I've heard this before, and a quick Google search supports it.
So that's what, two things on the list that might be a good idea? Great article. - Cmain, on 10/11/2007, -4/+6If you have ever seen the Mythbusters episode where the cool beers you can see that salt, ice, and water will be colder than just ice and water.
- Tippis, on 10/11/2007, -0/+218. Build model waterfalls...
For instance, many of the Naboo waterfalls in SW-EP1 are made mainly by letting salt fall off a table. The crystalline glimmer and the salt dust creates a very nice illusion of frothing water. - gostars, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Adding salt to water raises the boiling point. The salty water has to get hotter to boil. So it will take longer to boil. But it will cook stuff more quickly since salted water can get hotter than unsalted water (water can't ever be hotter than its boiling temperature).
- Ajjah, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4They are interesting, but I don't think that I would eat an apple that has absorbed saltwater. "Somethings fishy...."
- acAeris99, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2#16 - Kill snails.
#17 - Ward off ghosts. - wattznext, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3Do you people even bother to read the comments above you to see if someone has already made your comment/bad joke?
dugg down for double comment...grrr - poonaka, on 10/11/2007, -0/+215 ways to hack with salt. Hilarity Ensues!!!!
- iismeyouisnot, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Quoted from http://itotd.com/articles/521/water-freezing-and-boiling-myths/
"Boiling Water (with salt): I added a generous 2 tablespoons of table salt—much more than most people would ever use for boiling pasta or vegetables—to a mere 1 liter of water. It boiled in 6 minutes, 33 seconds (versus 6 minutes for unsalted, room-temperature water) and reached a temperature, according to my thermometer, of 216°F (102°C). So clearly the salt had an effect, but not much of one—and this was with an uncommonly high concentration. My verdict: Add salt to water if you want to season it, but don’t expect it to make any significant change in the water’s boiling time or temperature."
The amount of salt you would need to add to significantly change the boiling temperature of water is actually quite high around 165g per degree of temperature, that's about .36lbs of salt. See more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling-point_elevation - schmik07, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Cruel bastard
- unfinite, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2In Canada, my salt never clumps.
- SamuraiPanda, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I was surprised at this list for not including one that I think diggers would actually find useful: Coffee that is left out too long gets that kind of bitter taste to it, and it tastes so bad you throw it out, right? Well, adding a pinch of salt to the coffee actually removes that nasty taste from it, so its almost like a fresh cup.
- wushu18t, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2but sticking together is what good salts do!
- OhNine, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I read this as: If the egg stinks, it is bad.
- meshman, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1[Insert witty remark about garden hoses in the hopes I won't be logged out AGAIN like the site seems to do every 10 freaking minutes]
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