Step by step guide to drying wet salt

Have you ever found yourself needing salt only to find the salt wet? Maybe you left your salt in the sink or maybe you put your salt in the freezer so it won’t melt so fast when placing it atop a hot pretzel & the freezer door didn’t secure; or maybe you spilled your vodka on the salt & thought about licking it up but remembered what your doctor said about sodium intake. Whatever the case, drying salt is not as difficult as it sounds. In just six easy steps you can dry your salt. And yes, I’ve tested this method countless times, it works.

• Gather wet salt into an appropriate sized container
• Move all of the salt into a funnel that is positioned over another, larger container
• After all wet salt has moved through the funnel, dump salt onto appropriate sized flat dry surface (do not use paper towels as the salt will stick to the towels — and while it can be removed, piece by piece, it adds hours to the process)
• Using a small dried palm frond or the like, move the salt around on the surface ensuring that no one grain of salt is in contact with another .
• Let salt rest for at least 30 minutes and up to 24 hours depending on the relative humidity in the drying environment. A good rule of thumb is that for every two degrees above or below average ambient room temperature, absolute humidity will rise, or fall, in relation to seasonally adjusted rainfall amounts, by +/- 1.737 therms, and therefore will have a corresponding relation to the rate at which the salt will dry.
• Check dryness every 30–60 minutes by gently fanning the palm frond 2–3 inches above the drying surface. When 1 gentle swoosh of the frond provides adequate force to move 95+% of the grains in the direct path of the frond’s movement, the salt is dry and once again ready for storing

Editors note: This method was designed solely for those salts measuring no less than 1 mm in diameter e.g. various kosher brands, rock salt, sea salt, etc. The drying of table salt is possible but not recommended.