This kinda thing is totally my jam. A in-depth look at something so simple and boring that it’s brilliant. Incredibly well researched and written, I can’t wait to get to my next book from Mark Kurlansky. I’m thinking Oyster, 1968, and then Cod. Cod is far and away his 2nd most popular title, but there was a lot of talk of it in Salt so I’m going to need a break. If you have any questions on sodium chloride, fleur de sel, Morton’s, McIlhenny, salt with dirt in it, what those red/pink round lakes you see when flying in to San Fran are, etc., just shoot.

Highlights:

• “For centuries it was believed that mice could reproduce without sex, simply by being in salt.”
• “We have forgotten that from the beginning of civilization until about 100 years ago, salt was one of the most sought-after commodities in human history.”
• “The ancient Egyptians may have been the first to cure meat and fish with salt.”
• “Salting has an effect resembling cooking.”
• “The camel was a native of North America, though it became extinct there two million years ago.”
• “At times soldiers were even paid in salt, which was the origin of the word salary and the expression ‘worth his salt’ or ‘earning his salt.’”
• “The Romans salted their greens, believing this to counteract the natural bitterness, which is the origin of the word salad, salted.”
• “Despite their hardness, olives must be hand-picked because any bruising can be ruinous in the pickling process.”
• “Anglo Saxons called a saltworks a wich.” (this is how places got the suffix “wich”)
• “In eighteenth-century England, anchovy sauce became known as ketchup, katchup, or catsup.”
• “The tomato is an American plant.”
• “Agro-industry, which abandoned the goal of producing the best food and strived to produce the most per acre, was an English invention.”
• “A salt lick near Lake Erie had a wide road made by buffalo, and the town started there was named Buffalo, New York.”
• “When these early settlers hunted, they would leave red herring along their trail because the strong smell would confuse wolves, which is the origin of the expression red herring, meaning ‘a false trail.’”
• “In 1864, potatoes cost $2.25 a bushel in the North and $25 a bushel in Richmond.”
• “Making salt became a way to avoid military service.”
• “A salt is a small but perfect thing.” (think: chemistry)
• “The average twentieth-century European consumed half as much salt as the average nineteenth-century European.”
• “Gray salts, black salts, salts with any visible impurities are sought out and marketed for their colors, even though the tint usually means the presence of dirt.”