Not again! The salt grinder has moisture in it! The salt won’t grind properly. Yes, I’ve tried the rice grains. I end up with ground ricey-salt. Even when I used the salt shaker with the little holes on top, the salt became too heavy with moisture to shake out freely. I’ve found rice absorbs best in heated water. In any case, this wet, moist grain has been a continuous problem for me. For the past 10 years, I’ve lived where 100 inches of rain per year is the norm. And because I like adding a touch of salt while cooking – sizzling steak or anything steamy, it has been a constant bane.

On this particular day, instead of reaching for the tea towel, I happened to tear off a piece of absorbent paper to wipe the fine steam beads. This got me thinking. ‘What if? Surely, it couldn’t be that easy. Consequently, over the past two months I’ve been experimenting with a small piece of tri-folded absorbent paper. I placed the paper under the lid of the grinder and closed it shut. Next time I used it, one to two days later, it had absorbed the moisture. Now I have dry salt grains to grind. Experiment and let me know what you think.

Tri-folded paper – Fold absorbent paper in thirds and thirds again.