Salt - Simple and Sublime
Salt is a mineral that consists mostly of sodium chloride (NaCl). It is an essential nutrient for animals, yet it is toxic to most plants. In her novel Tongue, author Kyung Ran Jo recounts this legend about salt: “A long time ago, a princess told the king, ‘I love you as much as I love salt.’ Believing it to be an insult, the king banished his daughter from his kingdom. But after a long time, the king realized the value of salt and the depth of his daughter’s love for him.”
Saltiness is one of the basic tastes perceived by the tongue, making it an esteemed and ubiquitous food flavouring. It also “retains vegetables’ vivid colours when parboiling, removes astringency from salad greens, freezes ice cream, quickly cools boiling water, maintains the freshness of cut flowers, removes stains on clothing, alleviates pain in your neck, is an ingredient in soap,” according to Jo. Darlene McFarlane in her article “15 Household Uses for Table Salt” recommends testing an egg’s freshness by placing it in a cup of saltwater. An egg that floats is not fresh. Ants will not venture onto a salt-covered surface, according to McFarlane, so she suggests sprinkling it on windowsills and in doorways to repel them from your residence.
Salt’s historical distinction lies not so much in its taste or any of its aforementioned amazing talents, however, as in its suitability as a preservative. Salt has been used as a food preservative for centuries. One of the oldest documented saltworks is the Xiechi Lake near Yuncheng in Shanxi, China. Salt was harvested from its surface as early as 6000 B.C. Salt, along with salted birds and salt fish, was unearthed with funereal offerings in ancient Egyptian tombs from the third millennium B.C. Less than half a century later, Egypt instituted exportation of salt fish to the Phoenicians, who in turn traded Egyptian salt fish with their commercial partners throughout North Africa, engendering the establishment of wide-ranging trade associations throughout the Mediterranean region. Similarly, in the first millennium B.C., Celtic people exchanged salted meat for wine and other luxury goods from ancient Greece and Rome. The wide expanse of the Celtic salt trade is exemplified by the shared Celtic, Greek, and Egyptian root word for salt, hal, which is iterated in the names of saltworks throughout the region: Halle and Schwäbisch Hall in Germany, Halych in Ukraine, and Galicia in Spain.
Throughout history, salt has been deemed a precious commodity. In fact, the word “salary” is derived from the Middle English salaire, from the Latin salarium, which means a payment made in salt (sal) or for salt, from salarius which means “pertaining to salt.” Many historians agree that the Latin word salarium is related to salt and soldiers, but stress that the original association is unclear. Some surmise that soldiers were remunerated in salt. Some postulate that the word soldier itself is derived from the word for salt. Even today, a hardworking employee might be said to be “worth his salt” or might be commended for “soldiering on.”
