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When I was a kid it was fairly common to see salt shakers with grains of uncooked rice in them. This was to keep the salt from sticking together in a humid envi
by neverartful 4y ago
When I was a kid it was fairly common to see salt shakers with grains of uncooked rice in them. This was to keep the salt from sticking together in a humid environment.
- b112 4y agoYup, and I find I need rice in ultra humid environments still.
- bredren 4y agoThey used to have this in the space needle restaurant. It was the first place I saw it when I was a kid.
- piva00 4y agoYup, very common in Brazil in general. It's not infallible though, on very humid places such as coastal cities you will still get salt clumping with rice in it, usually on the sieve of the shaker...
- ClimaxGravely 4y agoI still do today but totally by force of habit. It's just something we always did when growing up.
- Fatnino 4y agoDoes the rice absorb the moisture more than the salt does? Or is it just there to bounce around and break up the clumps of damp salt?
- CSSer 4y agoI think yes to the first question. Rice is extremely hygroscopic. In a fairly famous novel, Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, there’s even an instance of a wooden ship with a cargo hold filled with rice breaking up and sinking at sea because of a small leak the crew was unable to detect in time. I’m unable to find a direct source on this, but it’s claimed this is not just a story but actually happened in real life too. The author, C.S. Forester, used stories he had heard and read about in the Navy Gazette to form the basis for his historical fiction novel.
- phil21 4y agoI can't see how this would work. Salt seems much more hygroscopic to me, and if the rice was actually asbording a meaningful amount of moisture you'd have it spoiling. If anything I'd bet the salt is keeping the rice dry. Not to mention the open container design salt shakers inherently share which would imply a rather limited lifetime of the kernels. I'm fairly certain this has to be primary a mechanical mechanism, if it even works at all. I recall plenty of salt shakers at airbnbs or whatnot that were quite soggy regardless of the amount of rice inside the shaker.
- dtgriscom 4y agoPersonal theory: as the humidity changes, the rice absorbs and releases water, expanding and contracting. That movement breaks up incipient salt caking. (Yes: we have rice in our salt shaker. All the best people do.)
- iancmceachern 4y agoIt's still common!
- kube-system 4y agoI have some in my salt shaker now.
- shadowofneptune 4y agoIt's still very useful for other spices which clump easily, like paprika. Uncooked pasta works as well.
- CobrastanJorji 4y agoI saw this sometimes as a kid and completely forgot about it. I think I assumed these were just dirty or something. Wow!