SALT! Who'd a thunk....

[mattl]

Salt, it's not just for food anymore!  Clean with salt....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/...ing_n_813862.html#s228749&title=1_All_Purpose

 

[ronhic]

Nothing new about that....

Nothing gets tannin off tea cups faster than a tablespoon of salt and a couple of drops of detergent....force it around with your fingers and voila!

 

Basically, in all the things above, salt is the abrasive and vinegar the cleaner....there is nothing new about it at all....both of my grandmothers used vinegar in particular with salt added occassionally to scour things.... 

 

[bajaespuma]

Nothing cleans copper better than vinegar and salt. I was trained to wipe out a copper bowl with vinegar and salt every time before I whipped egg whites or made a Sabayon.

 

[3beltwesty]

Item 6. Coffee Pot cleaning.

In grade school in Indiana I worked in the cafeteria; we would add salt to a dirty coffee pot, then a lemon or lime slice; then ice cubes, then a touch of water.

One jiggles the mess around and around.

The ice cubes are the mass, the salt adds rubbing/friction/scouring.

The lemon or lime adds acidity to cut the coffee quicker.

Sometimes I have seen folks at old Sambos, Dennys, Whaffle House, or Int House Pancakes use a variant of this old scheme.