Apr 30, 2013

Use Mason Jars to Preserve Salt When Buying in Bulk

Guest Writer:  Ruth Morse
#2 in the Mason Jars Series

Here's another idea from Pinterest. If you remember, in my last post I promised a second idea for mason jars. Amazingly, I remembered for four weeks! This one is even simpler than the last one. 

You probably buy table salt in a cardboard box with the metal flip lid. Me, too. It's cheap in the grocery store. That same metal lid design has been around since I was a kid. And that's a LONG time! 

You know what? Cheap as it is to buy salt in the grocery, it's even cheaper to get it at a place that sells spices in bulk. However, it comes in a plastic bag. There is no way to corral salt in a plastic bag, so you have to transfer it into a different container.

Any old glass jar would probably work, but I like the pour spout on the cardboard box, so this little trick is perfect, combining the best of both worlds: cheapness and convenience.
 Cute, huh?
And so simple!

Obviously you do need to have one of those cardboard salt containers to retrofit the mason jar.... 
I would suggest emptying the cardboard container before removing the top or you'll have salt all over the place.
Trust me......I know.
Here's how I got to the end product.


I took the mason screw ring and laid it on the box top, as close as possible to the edge by the spout.

Then I realized that this was never going to fit inside the ring! Check out the second, smaller ring. This is drawn using the little inner metal circle of a 2 part mason jar top. I carefully cut the inner circle out with a small serrated knife. Check to see if the cardboard is a tight fit inside the metal ring. It might be a hair too big. If need be, carefully trim the cardboard circle until it fits snugly inside the ring. 

That's pretty much it! If you are obsessive about form over function, you can spray paint the ring a color to coordinate in your kitchen. And you can decoupage something ever-so-cute over the cardboard top. I saw one on Pinterest that had a page from an old dictionary [with the definition of "SALT"] glued on the circle top! Too cutesy. 

As you can see, I did none of the above, but did hand scribble SALT on the top. 

You also can glue the cardboard in the ring, if you want. But forget about ever washing the ring again. 

Well, there you go. A cheapo, creative, convenient, constructive, contributive, comfortable, capacious, considerable colossal good idea!



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...and one more thing......
uh, I'll get back to you when I remember it.
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The Cheap Senior Citizen is a Guest Writer who shares helpful hints and results from her test kitchen.
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