Salt, Seasoning and More

Most of us don't give a lot of thought to salt. We know we like it and even sometimes crave it (to the distress of some of our doctors). You might not think salt could be as important or interesting as it actually is.

Salt has been incorporated into our lives since the time of the caveman. Throughout history, salt has left many footnotes. Salt has integrated itself into our past and current lives through language, economy, religion and culture.

Salt was used as a commodity throughout the centuries. It has been recognized as a universal currency. It was an important trade staple between far reaching nations. Greek slave traders used salt to barter for slaves. The expression "not worth his salt" is said to have originated from a derogatory opinion when a Greek was considering a less than stellar slave. Roman legionnaires were actually paid with salt. The word salary found its roots with this practice.

One can only imagine how many warehouses would be filled with salt if the bonused officers of AIG were paid in salt today.

There were more than 30 references to salt in the bible. The most widely recognized one is regarding Lots wife turning into a pillar of salt. Buddhists throw salt over their shoulders after a funeral. They believe if they do this before entering their house the salt will repel any lingering evil spirits.

Medieval royalty held salt in high esteem and this was reflected at their dining tables. If you were held in high regard, you sat close to the salt, if not you were shuffled down to the end of the table far away from the salt.

Salt was used as food enhancer and preservative of the past but it has over 14,000 known uses today. Today salt is used widely in manufacturing (leather is one example), and tons of other ways. We use it for everything from keeping our roads safe to shining silver. We use it in a paste mixed with oil to remove white spots on tables to using it in our baths. The list is almost endless.

We are all familiar with regular table salt. The varieties of salt most certainly do not end there. If you do a Google search you can find stores that specialize in salt alone. Foodies have taken note and the result is distinctive and some say, elitist salts. I read of one salt that cost more ounce for ounce than silver. Sea salts from across the globe are all the rage these days. There is a company near Seattle, Washington (Saltworks), that Inc. magazine ranked as #117 fastest growing companies in 2007. They sell at least eighty different types of salt in a range of colors from just about every land imaginable.

History has often been used as a future indicator of human behavior. Are specialty sea salts making some self described upper crusters behave like the kings of the past? Or are they just having fun with this new chapter of salt history? Or will most of remain plebian like myself and consume Morton's salt?

It doesn't appear likely that we will ever run out of salt. There is even salt on Mars. There is salt evaporated and harvested from the sea as well as numerous salt mines. We will always have a need and a use for salt, future uses remain to be invented.