5

I have high-ish blood pressure and the doctor said keep the salt under control. It is easy to ration controlled amounts of salt when cooking large amounts of stews and similar foods and you add salt by teaspoon. But I don't really make stews that much, most of my cooking are single or double servings that I just salt with a sprinkler. I do have a nice salt sprinkler, about 8 oz, however, it is very difficult to gauge a proper amount of salt approximately so I often either over- or under-salt.

Is there a device that will accurately measure portions of a teaspoon and at the same time allow me to sprinkle them evenly? Because, if I measure maybe a quarter of a teaspoon, sprinkling it between fingers doesn't distribute salt as evenly as using my sprinkler, which is, like I said above, prone to inaccuracy. Is there any way (a device of some sort) to reap the best of both approaches?

amphibient
  • 2,951
  • 16
  • 45
  • 56

2 Answers2

5

You may need to practice sprinkling salt --

  • Get a large piece of paper or plastic, that's preferably not white.
  • Sprinkle some salt on it. Try from different heights. You might also try different types of salt (I find coarser salts easier to control)
  • Roll up the paper (or plastic), so you can pour the salt back into a small dish to try again.

Once you're comfortable with sprinkling salt :

  • Measure out the salt.
  • Pour the salt into your off hand.
  • Use your good hand to take pinches of the salt & sprinkle it on the food.

If you're really wedded to a shaker -- you might consider a grinder and coarser salt. If you know how many grinds it takes to get a teaspoon, you could roughly estimate how much salt is going in by counting grinds.

Joe
  • 82,913
  • 19
  • 164
  • 476
3

Stock solutions and eye droppers work for this. a solution at 25 grams salt in 100 ml water (well within solubility limits) Will give you 0.25 gram salt or about 0.1 gram sodium (salt is 39% sodium). Every standard eye dropper I've ever tested yielded remarkably close to 1 ml per squeeze.

A teaspoon of the liquid would deliver about 0.5 gram sodium, while a tablespoon would deliver about 1.48 gram sodium.

You shouldn't have trouble with growies in a salt stock solution at that concentrated, although the mix may grow a bit cloudy as 1) salt you buy in the grocery store is not pure and 2) the manufacturers add anti-caking agents which are usually not soluble.

Keep the jar sealed between uses, and you should be good for months.

Wayfaring Stranger
  • 11,856
  • 1
  • 38
  • 44