Table Salt - What is the shelf life?

[Canthespam]

I only use sea salt and kosher salt, so I rarely if ever buy regular table salt. I have some that is probably 4 years old. At the rate I use/need it, I hate to buy more.

I need maybe a teaspoon or two to bake several batches of cookies. Is my salt still good?

[Full tummy]

Forever, unless it's contaminated. But that's unlikely: it won't attract insects, rodents, bacteria. Salt is used as a preservative... So, as long as it's been kept clean, it's perfectly good.

[hotoynoodle]

salt is a mineral -- it lasts forever. even if it gets wet, it will eventually dry out and then be fine. there is no reason you can't bake with kosher salt instead of table salt -- professional kitchens and bakers do not use table salt. it has a bitterness that some people can detect.

use your table salt as an environmentally safe scrub (instead of ajax or comet) and use it up that way.

[GilaB]

If you opt to bake with kosher salt, make sure to adjust your recipes that call for regular table salt. The grains of kosher salt are bigger, leading to you needing slightly more kosher salt to get the same amount of saltiness in a given volume of table salt. That said, I'm not sure off the top of my head what the conversion factor is.

[Karl S]

It's a stone, not a living thing. It doesn't go bad unless it's compromised by moisture.

[Sean]

I have been using the same box of kosher salt for the past ten years, just had some this morning on my hard boiled eggs and it still has the saltiness...

[Squirrels]

You must not cook very often. Or you have a massive box of salt.

[Canthespam]

Thanks for the info - I was planning on going door to door asking for teaspoons of salt :-)

[Sean]

I cook all the time, it is bizarre how long that box has lasted...

[karykat]

Yeah, those kosher salt boxes are huge.

[FoodFuser]

The natrified mummies of ancient Egypt seem to be of general consensus that salt lasts a pretty long time.

It doesn't go bad.

Baking powder, on the other hand, is hygroscopic, so it quickly absorbs water from the air, thus diminishing its power to give a leavening burst when rehydrated. It's best stored in a tight mason jar and replenished 6 months after unsealing.

[mcsheridan]

Plain salt as you describe, kept dry, has an indefinite shelf life. No need to buy more.

Seasoned salt is an entirely different matter; treat as any other dry spice.

[paulj]

You could take the Biblical approach. Taste it. If it has lost its saltiness, throw it out. :)

[Canthespam]

If salt loses it's saltiness - what would you call it :-)

[paulj]

Commentators have been dancing around that one for some time.