That little salt shaker you have on your kitchen counter is absolutely loaded with history! It’s been vital to humanity’s development across thousands of years in a myriad of ways, from religious offerings to commerce, from first aid to food preservations, and everything in between. Let’s take this with a grain of… curiosity!
The importance of salt for humankind began at the shift from game to grain in people’s diets; meat is naturally rich in salt, which meant that this nutritional requirement needed to be fulfilled elsewhere when people started eating more cereals and less meat. Underground deposits were inaccessible given the tools of the era, meaning the mineral quickly became one of the world’s premier trading commodities among civilizations. There is evidence dating back to 6000 BCE of people in China and modern-day Romania boiling spring water to extract its salt. The earliest treatise on pharmacology, published in China around 2700 BCE, lists more than 40 types of salt and two methods of extraction. As trade routes blossomed, it acted as an excellent source of revenue. Across the eras of Ancient Egypt, it was used for religious offerings, trade with their Phoenician neighbors, mummification, sterilizing wounds, and more. Egyptian art from as early as 1450 BCE depicts salt production!
This little mineral only increased in importance as humanity continued to develop. Salt was a key player in the West African trading empire of Mali from the 13th through the 16th centuries. It was such a hot commodity that the networks of trade routes that linked West Africa to the Mediterranean region during the Middle Ages, known as the Trans-Saharan Trade, was also often referred to as the “Gold-Salt Trade,” — after the two most popular goods transported on this network of routes. This network was controlled by several empires over a thousand years including the Kingdom of Ghana, the Mali Empire, and the Songhai Empire.
In Europe, Venice’s economy flourished under their salt monopoly. The Dutch revolt of the 16th century was successful in part because of their blockade of Iberian salt works, which drove Spain to bankruptcy. Similarly, France’s salt tax, or “gabelle,” was significant to the ignition of the French Revolution in the 18th century. When the French retreated from Moscow in the Napoleonic Wars, thousands of Napoleon’s troops died due to salt deficiency, which affects the body’s ability to heal wounds and lowers immunity to disease. This importance of salt in revolutions isn’t a thing of the distant past, either – protests against British taxes on salt took place across India as recently as 1930, when Gandhi led his followers to the sea to make their own salt.
It’s no surprise then that it also played a key role in the European colonization of the Americas. British and French fishing fleets in the 15th century were the first European inhabitants of North America since the Vikings – and if it wasn’t for their method of “dry” or “shore” salting (preserving their catch by salting it on racks onshore, as opposed to the Portuguese and Spanish method of “wet” salting onboard their ships), their “discovery” of the New World may have happened several decades or even centuries later.
In 1654, records from Onondaga territories (in present day New York); reported that the Onondaga tribe made salt by boiling brine from nearby springs. By the next century, colonists were using the same technique in iron kettles. The same pattern took place in the Kanawha Valley (present day West Virginia) – colonists noted the indigenous communities boiling water to harvest salt in 1755, and within 50 years they were drilling for concentrated brine in these springs. This valley is what would end up supplying the Confederacy with salt during the Civil War, when production peaked across the States at over 225 thousand short tons. It was so important to the settlements that a treaty between the Onondaga tribe and the state of New York included a provision for salt reservations in order to prevent monopolies, as did the Land Act Treaty of 1795.
Between 1790 and 1860, salt was produced in Louisiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Michigan! Waste from Michigan’s lumber industry acted as low-cost fuel to produce salt in Saginaw and St. Clair during the mid-19th century, and in 1882 drillers discovered a rock salt deposit in St. Clair that provided saturated brine to feed into the evaporators. Solution mining of these deposits spread through the rest of the salt-producing states after that, and this drilling soon gave way to conventional underground mining. Today, these mines in the U.S. can be found in Kansas, Louisiana, Ohio, New York, and Texas. In Canada, there are mines in Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia.
This method of production via mining, plus the development of new drilling techniques to make mining more efficient, increased mined salt’s share of the salt market overall. Although the mining method is more expensive than the method of evaporating seawater, this new source of salt reduced its overall price and it became a more commonplace ingredient added into people’s food. It never stopped being used as a preservative (beyond the obvious and delicious lox, check out these salt-packed capers or salt-packed anchovies), but the lowered price meant it became equally (or more) valued for its flavor enhancing abilities — especially as food preservation techniques like canning and refrigeration advanced.
When you add salt to food, whether it’s savory or sweet, bitter or sour, it adds more dimensions of flavor and allows the other ingredients to shine. Now it goes in just about everything, from soup broths to baked goods (sprinkling sea salt on chocolate chip cookies isn’t just a passing fad!). Ari writes, “Quite simply, I don’t think it’s possible to overstress the import of salt in the professional food world—salt levels can and will completely alter the eating experience of the person who’s consuming what we’re selling.” Notably, with the success of technological advancements like the Industrial Revolution, the flavor of salt began to suffer. When American health authorities elected to add iodine to salt to combat goiter in the 1920s, it improved the nation’s health, but lent a bitter taste to whatever it was added to. Even with ingredients as seemingly marginal as salt, quality matters!
An Ex-salt-ed Seasoning at the Deli
Flavor is one of the most important things to us at the Deli — which means we take our salt very seriously! We have a variety to choose from, all with different applications in the kitchen. Ari writes, “I will warn you that there are two disadvantages to seasoning your food with better salt. Once you get accustomed to its exceptional flavor, standard salt just won’t cut it anymore. The other “problem” is that it’s impossible to use the more coarsely textured sea salt in a saltshaker. The crystals are too big and also quite damp. To serve traditional sea salt, you pass it in a small bowl and let people take a pinch between their thumb and forefinger.”
Black Truffle Salt: Bold, elegant and aromatic, combined with black truffles. A flavorful seasoning for risottos, pasta, vegetables, eggs, salmon and grilled meats.
White Truffle Salt: Beautifully delicate, combined with rare white truffles. This diamond of a seasoning will surely be a kitchen staple once you give it a try.
Hawaiian Black Lava Salt: This distinctive Black Lava Salt from the island of Moloka’i gets its unique look and mineral-rich flavor from blending Hawaiian sea salt with activated charcoal, a technique that evokes a time when lava powder mixed naturally with drying sea water to form dark crystals
Portuguese Sea Salt – Coarse and Fine: A southern European version of Brittany’s fleur de sel, this exceptionally delicate and delicious sea salt is made by a small group of environmentally conscious traditionalists in the National Park of Ria Formosa on the southern coast of Portugal. Led by João Navalho, a Mozambique-born Portuguese student of marine biology, the group has recently revived traditional Portuguese sea salt production. Their work has also helped restore the local ecosystem, aiding in keeping the area’s birds — egrets, herons, and others — alive and active. In comparison to the French fleur de sel, the Portuguese product is lighter, the flakes a touch smaller. It contains no artificial ingredients or other additives. Like its French counterpart, the Portuguese flor da sal is best sprinkled onto foods just before serving. Try it on broiled fish, grilled octopus, sautéed vegetables, or toasted bread drizzled with extra virgin olive oil.
Halen Mon Sea Salt: With a grant from the Winston Churchill Foundation, David Lea-Wilson and his wife, Alison, did research on salt and a few years later reestablished the old Welsh tradition of salt making on the Isle of Anglesey off the northwest coast of Wales. The Lea-Wilsons have been selling their salt since 1997. The process of salt making in Wales is much the same as that at the Maldon saltworks on the opposite coast of Great Britain. Like Maldon, Halen Môn sea salt forms naturally into beautiful pyramid-shaped translucent white crystals. It has a marvelous, mellow, slightly sweet flavor. It’s also certified organic.
Halen Mon Smoked Sea Salt: Smoked over oak chips. Not overpowering, this has a distinct sweet-smoke flavor.
Sel de Guerande Salt: Underneath the fleur de sel is what is known as sel gris, or “gray salt,” which makes up the majority of what gets harvested on the Atlantic coast of France. The gray color comes from natural clay at the bottom of the ponds. Fleur de sel, by contrast, is snow-white because it forms on the top of the pools and never touches the ocean floor. Although it’s slightly less sparkling in flavor, it’s no slouch. Despite its bleak-sounding name, it’s one of the most flavorful options. Its complex mineral makeup and high levels of residual seawater give it a big, bold taste-of-the-sea flavor. It’s also affordable enough for everyday eating. Great for beef, lamb, or poultry dishes because its full flavor can hold its own with meat. It’s also what we use on our very own potato chips!
Fleur de Sel First Harvest: The queen of French salts is fleur de sel. It is the first formation of crystals on the seawater’s surface. Supply is inconsistent because the formation of the crystals is irregular. Some seasons you see it, some you don’t. Locals say that on the days when fleur de sel is being formed, you can see it sparkling in the water as the afternoon sun hits. Whereas other sea salts generally take the form of flakes or grains, fleur de sel forms like snowflakes. Try a bit on toasted country bread sprinkled with a generous dose of good French olive oil. Drop a few flakes on slices of freshly made mozzarella, then add olive oil and freshly ground black pepper.
San Juan Island Reserve Salt: This solar-powered sensation from Washington State is the perfect texture and crystal. No boilers, no heaters, no fans — just sea water and sunshine. While most of San Juan Island’s salts form at a crystal size that needs to be ground down and sifted to prepare it for consumption, their Reserve batch is formed with a perfect size right from the get-go.
Shake It Up!
There are countless ways to use this ubiquitous ingredient, from household cleaning to health and beauty, but we’re just going to stick to what we know here: food! Ari says, “The best way I know to take advantage of the more interesting flavors of good sea salt is to use it much as you would the best extra virgin olive oil, as a condiment added at the end of a dish. Sprinkle a few coarse grains onto pasta, salad, freshly sliced tomatoes, or bruschetta.”
Boiling pasta water: Not only does it impart flavor to your pasta, but it raises the boiling point for the water, making the pasta cook faster!
Juicier turkey: Salting your Thanksgiving turkey will draw out all its juices, creating a brine without any additional liquid and lending a tender, flavorful roast.
Peeling eggs: Eggs boiled in salted water will peel easier (submerging them in cold water while you peel also helps!).
Preventing browning: If you’re slow to peeling your produce, drop your apples, pears, or potatoes in a bowl of lightly salted cold water as you go to prevent them from oxidizing.
