How do you get the last of the salt out of a cylindrical Morton's box?
Asked by
Jeruba (
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March 16th, 2019
Do you bother with it, or do you routinely toss the box out not quite empty?
Sometimes I keep shaking it and rotating it, trying to get the last few grains out through the opening, and sometimes I just cut a hole in the box.
Do you have a better trick?
I like the fact that a Morton’s Salt box is basically unchanged since I was a little girl, design and label and all. When it works, why mess with it?
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28 Answers
Same way I’d get the last of the salt out of a rectangular box. (Ha ha. I crack myself up. ~)
Ok. I just pour then twist once or twice then pitch in the recycle. I don’t fuss over it like I do with mayo and liquid dish soap and stuff.
What drives me mad now is the fact you can’t get the lid off of a lot of things anymore.
I tear the metal spout out of the top, rip the top to the edge of the cylinder, and wait for it to rain.(When it rains, it pours.) But seriously, after tearing the top, I pour it into a salt shaker.
Is a paper cylinder really a box?
Cut into the side and peel the top back.
Not worth the effort.
Figure that a normal sized canister of salt (26 oz or 737 grams).
Each grain of sale is about 5.85×110 ^-5 grams (.0000585 grams)
This means that the canister has12598290 (more that 12.5 million) individual grains of salt.
Let’s say that 100 of those grains are left at the bottom of the canister.
100/12598290 = 0.00000793758 meaning that you are wasting about 8/100000 of the contents of that canister.
Where I live, that size canister costs 99 cents (26 oz). This means that I am wasting about 8/100000 of a penny if I throw out the last couple grains.
My time and effort is worth more than 8/100000 of a cent.
Not worth the effort.
@elbanditoroso, I could have emptied my salt box in the time it took you to perform that computation.
I think I was playing around with getting the last of the salt out once and cut myself on the tin spout. Since then, I don’t bother. I usually have a new salt container before I finish the old, so I’m not desperate to find the last of the salt in the old one.
@zenvelo I’d call it a box because it’s cardboard. But good question.
@Jeruba but I gained the intellectual and personal satisfaction of solving a mathematical puzzle.
@elbanditoroso, in that case you have to figure in the entertainment value, which is also a factor in the goal of getting the last of the salt out of the box.
@elbanditoroso it is worth the effort if it avoids having to go to the store before you can cook dinner!
I rip the metal tab out and cut a slit in the top. The remaining salt pours out easily.
I then burn the now empty container in my wood burning stove.
Take a sharp knife and cut a notch in the top on the side.
Pour water into the container. Now spread the moist salt in a large baking tray and bake it in low heat for about an hour or so. Afterwards, break any remaining clumps. Let it cool before storing.
@joeschmo, I like it. Now we’re in Rube Goldberg territory. Why not set the box on fire and catch the salt along with the ashes in a metal pan, and then use a fan to blow off the ashes? Why, that’s only the beginning.
Have to say I like the direction this question is taking.
We could discover soap this way.
Getting Ed Norton on it tout suite.
Also, who was John Gault? Did we ever figure that out?
@zenvelo your link went to Art Carney lol. However, she should see Fight Club.
@joeschmo That’s the real Ed Norton, not some washed up actor.
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