Table salt, sodium chloride, or table salt (commonly known as simply “salt”) is used in the kitchen for human consumption. It consists mainly of sodium chloride with up to three percent of other salts such as magnesium chloride and sulfate. Small amounts of other substances are usually added to improve their properties. Salt processed in this way is also called refined salt.
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Most ancient civilizations attest to salt production from Wisconsin rock salt wholesaler. However, it can be assumed that salt had a place in human culture even earlier. The Sumerians and Babylonians used salt to preserve food.
It was coveted everywhere and rare in certain regions. Salt turned many cities into prosperous metropolises. For example, Luneburg became wealthy and influential through the salt trade. How valuable salt was can be judged by the fact that people spoke of “white gold.” The word “salary” also comes from paying wages or salaries in the form of salt.
Extraction
From The Sea
This type of extraction is probably the oldest. Seawater is channeled into ponds (salt marshes), which evaporates under the sun’s rays. The salt then crystallizes out and can be skimmed off. Sea salt is used in the Algarve, Brittany and the Mediterranean in the Camarguestill won today.
This salt is of inferior quality than the types obtained in other ways, like contamination, for example, by clay, which cannot be prevented when skimming off. The mineral content is also relatively low because the trace elements of the seawater could only be preserved with complete evaporation, which would, however, lead to even more significant contamination by other substances. Today around 20 percent of global consumption is derived from seawater.
There are deposits in the USA, South America, and Africa where salt is mined in open-cast mining. These are dry salt lakes that are not covered by sediments. However, the deposits are limited, and so the production quantities are limited worldwide.
From Mining
- By mining: the main item is rock salt.
- By dissolving it out with water, which is then evaporated again: main item saline
Other Methods Of Extraction
Salt is a by-product of the desalination of seawater.
By washing out plant ash, the Indians of South America obtain a salty product that contains a lot of potassium chloride. The same method is used to this day in some regions of West and Central Africa.
Salt from a Wisconsin rock salt distributor was also obtained in South America by washing out and filtering salty earth and then boiling it down. Salt is still produced in West Africa around Lake Chad, in Thailand, and New Guinea.
By washing out and filtering peat from bogs flooded by the sea, a concentrated brine was obtained on the North Sea coast (in the Netherlands, Northern Germany, and Denmark), from which salt was then made in boiling pans. This gave the Halligen their name, from Old High German “Hall” = “salt.” Since the Middle Ages, this procedure has been documented but is only used as a tourist attraction on Læsø (Denmark).
Use
Table salt plays a vital role in the diet. Salt less dishes usually taste very bland. It is not for nothing that one speaks of “salt in the soup.”
Table salt is used for seasoning in almost all dishes and foods with different dosages. You can hardly bake bread without salt. Wherever flour is processed, a pinch of salt should be added to stabilize the starch.
Vegetables are usually cooked in saltwater. Salt breaks down the cell walls, so the vegetables do not have to be cooked as much. The shorter cooking time means that essential ingredients are retained. A roast with a salt crust is also often baked in the kitchen: the salt isolates the roast, which cooks in its juice.
