SC - FoodTV and the SCA, was - Emeril (long)

[Lee-Gwen]

Seumas replied to me: 
> Stefan li Rous wrote: 
>  [snip] 
> > Since this was an Apicius recipe I'm not sure if the Roman salt mines
> > were still producing salt vs. brine at that time.
> 
> My understanding of geology is that salt mines are in ancient sea
> deposits, so the salt would still be 'sea' salt. The actually mineral
> content would vary from area to area, and depend also on when the
> deposit was formed. One benefit of mining salt rather than evaporating
> it is that ancient salt is probably clear of any pollution or waste
> runoff coming from a settled area nearby, unless groundwater is carrying
> it in. 

Yes, impurities introduced from evaporating seawater in earthen shallow
pools probably accounts for some of the discoloration in the medieval
sea salt.

Originally, when this discussion came up, I had trouble seeing why
the mineral content would be different between mined salt and salt
evaporated from the sea since they originate from the same source.
Sea water mineral concentrations have not varied that much since the
salt in the salt domes was laid down. However, these domes were laid
down over a long amount of time. The minerals do not percipitate out
all at the same rate. Thus you are likely to have layers in the salt
beds that will have different concentrations of these various trace
elements. So the salt mixture is likely to vary from the top of the
salt bed or dome to the bottom. 

I have not had time to do much research on this. Anyone with more
chemistry experience wish to comment?

- -- 
Lord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas           stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****