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Why Salt Was So Important Throughout History
- madman2890 8y agoThanks for the post. I was just in Seoul and at the Gyeongbokgung museum they had an entire section dedicated to salt, it's history, different forms, and importance. Until recently, in that expo and reading this article, I didn't realize just HOW important salt truly is.
- sasaf5 8y agoIf you have the chance, don't forget to taste the Korean "flower salt", which is basically salt in crystal flakes, as it naturally forms during evaporation. I haven't yet found a better salt for beef.
- JacobJans 8y agoMy favorite salt, and relatively affordable, is Celtic Sea Salt. There are so many varieties of salt out there!
- Fnoord 8y agoSure, as long as you don't claim its magically more healthy than other forms of NaCl. Not saying you do; just seen that regularly claimed by people who prefer/swear by certain salts.
- JacobJans 8y agoI don't make any health claims; however, un-processed salts, such as Celtic Sea Salt contain much more than just sodium. They contain many other minerals. In other words, Celtic Sea Salt is more than just NaCl.
- maeln 8y agoFleur de sel ("Salt flower") is also popular in Brittany. We also use salted butter in almost all of our traditional dishes.
- foozed 8y agoA favourite of mine are "Maldon Sea Salt Flakes". Not sure if it is actually "fleur de sel" but it is truly delicious and available almost everywhere (for instance through amazon...)
- KozmoNau7 8y agoDoesn't have to be Korean, most countries with any coast line make good flaky sea salt. Here in Denmark, we make it on the island of Læsø, where the geography helps concentrate the sea water before it is used to make sea salt. That's the fancy expensive stuff. I use flaky sea salt from 2kg buckets I buy at a restaurant supply store. Much less expensive, works just as well.
- a3n 8y agoDay to day importance of salt in history is preserved in language. "Worth his salt." Salary.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- jlebrech 8y agoit's also important for encoding passwords.
- baud147258 8y agoAnd in online conversations, spread all over the discussion threads
- jlebrech 8y agoi should have guessed it, HN has no humor
- al_ramich 8y agoPretty fascinating to see all the applications of Salt. You would think that the food industry is the largest application but not quite https://eusalt.com/sites/default/files/page-documents/Salt%20Applications%20-%202016.pdf https://eusalt.com/sites/default/files/page-documents/Salt%2...
- kaycebasques 8y agoThank you. Kurlansky goes into some of the applications of salt in the book. I was thinking about adding a section to this article on how salt drove technological innovation, but couldn't quite capture all the different events coherently.
- basch 8y agoSalt does other things to food besides alter taste and preserve. "Salt is special. See, rather than simply flavoring meat by working itself in between muscle fibers, it actually alters the structure of meat, primarily by causing certain parts of the protein myosin to become dissolvable in water. What does this accomplish? Well, by dissolving myosin, muscle structure is greatly loosened, allowing it to retain more moisture (this is the principle behind brining), and more importantly in this case, it allows proteins between muscle groups to cross-link, causing them to stick to each other. This is why, for instance, sausages get a nice bouncy, snappy texture, and why if you remove the salt from one, it becomes crumbly and dry (see here for more info on salting and making sausages, and here for some deeper scientific info on the process of salting meat. http://qpc.adm.slu.se/Low_salt_pig-meat_products/page_23.htm" http://qpc.adm.slu.se/Low_salt_pig-meat_products/page_23.htm... https://www.seriouseats.com/2013/05/food-lab-tacos-al-pastor.html https://www.seriouseats.com/2013/05/food-lab-tacos-al-pastor... (and a variant I like even more https://www.seriouseats.com/2016/02/how-to-make-mexican-pueblan-tacos-arabes.html https://www.seriouseats.com/2016/02/how-to-make-mexican-pueb...) The same idea works with steak, but you need to be careful if you are anywhere between immediately salting the steak, and less than an hour. (scroll to the Salt section) https://www.seriouseats.com/2011/03/the-food-lab-more-tips-for-perfect-steaks.html https://www.seriouseats.com/2011/03/the-food-lab-more-tips-f...
- cup-of-tea 8y ago> if you remove the salt from one, it becomes crumbly and dry If you remove the salt it is not a sausage. The word sausage comes from Latin salsus meaning "salted". Salad and sauce also come from this root (more obviously in the Spanish salsa).
- coldtea 8y agoEtymology doesn't dictate use, it only influences it. People will still call unsalted sausages (e.g. for people that must follow a salt-free diet ) sausages, even if 2000+ years ago salsus meant "salted" for a totally different nation of people. Heck, even vegan products are called sausages, without having any meat even.
- vfc1 8y agoWith the advent of refrigeration, we need salt less than ever. The problem is that brands have used it to gain a comercial advantage, to the point where if we eat some processed food and dont add any extra salt, we are already exceeding the daily recommended limit. The link between salt and hypertension is well known by the general public, but less well know is that salt is a major cause of stomach cancer. There is just so much salt hidden in everyday food, that we are not even aware of. Yet, its possible to do a very salty tasting soup just by using carrot juice or celery as the base instead of water, as those vegetables are relatively high in sodium. You taste it and could swear that the soup was salted, when there is no added salt.
- kaycebasques 8y agoI always thought that refrigeration was the nail in the coffin for demand for salt as a preservative, but the book mentioned in the article points out that it started with canned food. I never appreciated how innovative that approach must have been at the time. Stick the food in a sealed can and then heat it up. Although, apparently Ancient Romans and Chinese had used that technique, but for some reason it lost popularity until its rediscovery in the 19th century.
- ghein 8y agoSalt to hypertension thesis has been hit with a number of problems recently. As have many other "known" results in dietary and epidemiological studies. Current research suggests that while salt is bad for people WITH hypertension the causal link between elevated consumption and hypertension isn't what was earlier believed. One study here https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/317099.php https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/317099.php
- elboru 8y agoI reached a point where I don't know what to believe, everything cures and causes cancer at the same time, every week I'll ran into an article about a new study contradicting some random common knowledge. I guess the key is to live a balanced life, don't consume anything in excess and don't worry too much. "In medium virtus est"
- menacingly 8y agoI'm usually a fan of our "of general intellectual interest" type articles, but this one doesn't quite justify its existence. It's not very satisfying to read a list of the things you'd roughly guess from reading the headline.
- rebuilder 8y agoThe article is just a host for affiliate links.
- kaycebasques 8y agoI wrote the article. Yes, I'm trying to use affiliate links to make this passion project more sustainable in the long term, but I'm definitely not just cranking out content for the sake of sales. I'm actually quite discouraged at the moment because I can't get any traffic to the affiliate. I'm 90 days in and my account will be canceled if I don't get 3 sales by 180 days. My general strategy is to write about books that I happen to be reading anyway. I'm finding that it's a great way to deepen my knowledge retention of the books that I read. It took me about 5 to 7 hours to synthesize the contents of the book into these main themes. If you read the book you'll find that it's organized very differently from the themes that I've identified. So, sorry if it's coming off as garbage affiliate content just created for the sake of sales. Definitely not my intention.
- darius180 8y agoJust bought through the link instead of just wishlisting and buying tomorrow (I had seen the book before and had some interest, if not previously enough to buy it). Hopefully that gets you a step closer to 3 sales. Very interesting, and I also appreciate the discussion that it has launched here as well (for example, I didn't know that salt dissolves part of muscle protein)
- kaycebasques 8y agoWonderful, thank you. I do think I'll eventually get it to drive its own sales without my involvement. I obviously need to create a lot more high-quality content. I'm just feeling daunted and intimidated here at the start. So your support helps a lot.
- chobeat 8y agoI'm reading that book right now. It's very well written and light considering the many complex subjects that it covers.
- giardini 8y agoWish we had used Kurlansky's book for European history: I now have some understanding of the Hanseatic League's origin! Who could have believed a book titled "Salt" could be so enlightening and fascinating: Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky https://amzn.to/2L2DO4N https://amzn.to/2L2DO4N While this this sounds pedantic (who besides me would get excited about a good explanation the origins of "the Hanseatic League"?) but Kurlansky really makes it fascinatingly rich reading.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- attaboyjon 8y agoThe book 'Cod' by same author is also a really good, if not better book. I'm always impressed when someone can make a good story out of a seemingly boring topic. http://a.co/0tknqbI http://a.co/0tknqbI
- dghughes 8y agoOther uses of salt are in coffee, with tequila and salad. Salt reduces any of the bitterness in those things. It's why a salad is called a salad since the Romans salted the bitter greens they ate to reduce the bitterness.
- jobobgo 8y agoSalt is so important for every humam being TODAY and ALL time. It makes it sound like it is less important today than before. Without salt, mammals and humans alike die. It is as important as water and food. It's like the article could have been retitled: "Why Food Was So Important Throughout History". Duh! Because people got to eat. And with salt it is because our nerve transmissions operate on it.