Salt—More Than Seasoning

1. Add a little salt to water when poaching or hard-boiling eggs. It helps keep the poached egg from sticking to the pan, and it sets the white of a boiling egg if the shell cracks.

2. Egg whites will whip up more rapidly when a little salt is added.

3. When fruit pies boil over in the oven, salt sprinkled on the burned area loosens it.

4. When an enamel saucepan is burned, fill it with cold water, add two or three tablespoons salt, and let it stand over night. In the morning, bring the water slowly to a boil—you’ll have a clean saucepan.

5. To clean tarnished brass and copper-bottomed pans, cover with a paste of salt and vinegar. Let the pan stand for an hour, then rub it with a soft cloth, wash, and polish dry.

6. Soak clothespins in a strong brine and they won’t freeze on the line. One treatment should last through the season.

7. If there are too many suds in the washing machine or dishpan, sprinkle in a little salt.

8. Before freezing or canning fish, soak them in a brine solution of one cup salt to one gallon of water for about an hour to firm the flesh and reduce leakage when thawing.

9. To remove odors of fish or onion from hands, rub hands with salt and then rinse in water.

10. Place apples, pears, and potatoes in cold salt water after peeling them to prevent their turning dark.—Suggested by Georgia C. Lauritzen, Cooperative Extension Service, Utah State University, and Kay Franz, instructor in food science and nutrition, Brigham Young University.