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Salt shaker clogging is a big problem in the Caribbean- A older friend said his mom had these little Japanese porous tiles she add to her shakers. They worked great and could be re-used over and over for life. Does anyone know if they are still being made and if I can purchase them?

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    You're probably looking for moisture absorbin cearamics. Those are for example used in cartridges in lab lasers that need really dry air. The nice thing on those ceramics is that you can just bake out the humidity when they are saturated.
    – kruemi
    Commented Jan 20, 2022 at 13:09

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You may opt for purchasing coarse salt which, just prior to use, is milled to finer grains in a salt grinder. Their working principle is very similar to pepper grinders (torsion of the upper part into the opposite direction in respect to the lower part of the grinder), and thus equally sold in pairs with pepper grinders, too. They are available in different sizes, too.

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(image credit to review of kitchen appliances).

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    Nah, coarse salt gets damp too, and then it clogs up the milling parts. I have one of these on the dining table, mainly because it looks nice, but obviously you can't add rice, so once a month or so I have to take it apart and rinse and dry the grinders.
    – RedSonja
    Commented Jan 14, 2022 at 7:38
  • Then perhaps my stay at the Mediterranean (ante corona) wasn't an exposure to a weather as humid as yours.
    – Buttonwood
    Commented Jan 14, 2022 at 10:31
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As this is the Life Hacks site (not a shopping site) I won't answer the XY problem but address the clumping or clogging of salt, which is the actual problem that needs to be solved.

Table salt used in shakers is different from cooking salt. Various anti-caking agents are used, such as calcium or magnesium carbonate, and sodium aluminosilicate.

If you are already using table salt, but the humidity is still too high for it to flow freely, there are other ways to absorb the moisture that salt attracts. This is to add grains or beans to the salt, that won't come out of the shaker's holes.

  • Long grain rice – large enough raw grains not to pass through the shaker holes.

  • Dried beans – white beans or kidney beans with a mild flavour won't affect the taste of the salt, and are large enough not to block the shaker's holes.

  • Coffee beans – will apparently not impart any flavour to the salt.

  • Cloves – will flavour the salt a bit, maybe to your taste.

I don't know which of those can be dried out and re-used when the shaker is empty (as you do with the porous tiles), but the coffee beans probably can, and the rice or the pulse beans could perhaps be used as an ingredient for soup or stew.

In conclusion I recommend you to try coffee beans, which probably don't need to be high quality and are inexpensive.

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Sometimes when you buy multivitamins there is a small packet of silica gel. I would say it is food-safe. I have been using one in my large salt canister for years. My salt shaker manages without one. If the humidity is really troublesome, you can remove the packet as needed and dry it out in a low temp oven for 30 minutes.

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  • 120°F/50°C for ~30 mins. Many kinds have an indicator that changes colour when the silica gel needs to be dried again.
    – Stan
    Commented Jul 10, 2023 at 22:16
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Would a liquid spray work? Dissolve the salt in water and use a fine spray on the food when you need salt.

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  • And being able to properly dose the salt used goes down the drain. However, it is an interesting idea.
    – virolino
    Commented Jan 11, 2022 at 9:31
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    Your answer is unclear. Spray what liquid? Into or onto the shaker? How do you remove the liquid so that the salt doesn't just coagulate and make things worse?
    – Chenmunka ♦
    Commented Jan 11, 2022 at 11:49
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    @Chenmunka I read this as „forget about the shaker, make a saline solution instead and add that to the food when you want saltiness“.
    – Stephie
    Commented Jan 12, 2022 at 6:17
  • I really like this idea and it could be a really great hack. You could fill the saline solution into a small bottle with a special stopper that lets only individual drops out - like a bottle for liquid medicine. Just make sure you clean the bottle and stopper really really thoroughly.
    – Elmy
    Commented Jan 19, 2022 at 11:56
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i keep the shaker in a zip lock sandwich bag

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  • Welcome to Lifehacks. That's an easy place to keep some packs of silica gel.
    – Stan
    Commented Jul 10, 2023 at 22:20

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