The Year in Books: July with Salt by Mark Kurlansky

We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.

In July, I’m going to finish reading Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky. Salt is a cheap flavouring that I’m always telling people to eat less of at work; I never really realized how important it was in the history of the world until I read this book.

Only when I start to consider how many English words start with the prefix ‘sal’ did I realize how salt itself shaped much of our known world. The word ‘salt’ shares the same Latin root word as ‘salacious,’ since a man in love was called ‘salax’ by the Romans. Likewise, the word ‘salad’ meant salted vegetables, and ‘salami’ is derived from the Latin verb to salt. ‘Salary’ also shares the root, since Roman soldiers were paid in salt instead of coins. Romans made a salty sauce, garum, by fermenting fish scraps in salt. After the fall of the Roman empire, this sauce all but vanished from Europe. Ketchup, or catsup, was originally a salted anchovy sauce, similar to Roman garum. It slowly evolved into tomato ketchup, using the name kecap from the Indonesian soy and fish sauce.

One of the earliest ways humans searched for salt was to follow wild animal trails. I hear stories of moose coming to the sides of the roads in the Canadian springtime, consuming the salt that was used to deice the wintry Canadian roads. Later trailblazers such as Daniel Boone actually just followed animal trails that led to salt licks.

Salt has also been used to ward off the evil eye or to purify spaces. In traditional Japanese theatre, salt was sprinkled on the stage before each performance, or before a sumo wresting match, to protect against evil spirits.

In Chinese cooking, salt wasn’t added to food as crystalline salt; instead, salty sauces and pastes imparted a salty flavour. Salty, fermented fish sauce was developed in Asia; eventually the Chinese started adding soybeans and then in time dropped the fish, making a product that eventually became soy sauce. The Chinese also used salt to preserve vegetables by pickling via lactic fermentation. Even now, some provinces in China still eat a lot of pickled vegetables. Meanwhile in Africa, Egyptians may have been the first to discover how to make the bitter raw olive edible: by soaking the hard drupes in salty brine.

Salt was also an important commercial item in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Income from the sale and taxes of salt were responsible for building great cities and monuments. There was a state-controlled monopoly of salt in ancient China, the revenues of which helped build the Great Wall. The grand look of Venice was also financed by its salt administration. Controlling the production and transport of salt brought riches to many countries. The Hanseatic League was a fellowship in northern Europe that initiated quality control on traded items, established commercial laws, drew up reliable nautical charts, and built lighthouses. They were known as honourable merchants for a time, and were also called Easterlings, since they came from the east. Consequently, ‘Easterling’ is the origin of the word ‘sterling,’ which meant ‘of assured value.’ The town of Salzwedel was just a short drive from our Oma’s house in Germany, and was also a source of salt; it even belonged to the Hanseatic League.

The Arabs called a saltworks a ‘sebkha,’ where they harvested salt from wadis (dry riverbeds). There are still towns in North Africa that have ‘sebkha’ in their name. Ibn Batuta (who our high school English teacher called Ibn Batuti; she was terrible with pronunciation) travelled throughout the Middle Ages and reported on visiting the city of Taghaza. He claimed that the city was made entirely of salt, since salt blocks were the only material available for building.

Cities would develop near salt mines or sources of brine, instead of just near ports or rivers. Hallein is an Austrian town whose name means ‘saltwork,’ and it is near to Salzburg, which means ‘salt town.’ Hallstatt is another town, whose name also means ‘salt town.’ The Greek word ‘hal’ means salt, and is the root of the word Galli or Gauls, which were a Celtic people in France; same root as Galicia in both Spain and Poland. Salted meat was a Celtic specialty, and the Celts likely made the first salt-cured hams (the Egyptians would have been if they didn’t happen to find pigs revolting). Further west, salt also played a role in establishing new communities. One of the reasons the Mormons established Salt Lake City on the shores of the Great Salt Lake was for the salt.

Saltworks were so important throughout the world, including England, that there are still traces of salt’s influence. ‘Wich’ is the British name for a saltworks; that means that any town, such as Northwich or Middlewich (or Ipswich or Sandwich), was named for its saltworks.

Even in the New World, salt was important. The victory of the Union over the Confederates partly hinged on the North’s access to cheap salt. The Erie Canal, which runs from Lake Erie to the Hudson River (and which was a song I had to sing in Grade 5) was built in order to move salt to the port of New York City.

Like craving chocolate while reading Chocolat by Joanne Harris, reading this book made me crave salty foods, from crackers and chips to popcorn, pickles, sauerkraut and soy sauce.

See what other bloggers are reading at Circle of Pine Trees.