[Sca-cooks] Salt and pepper

[Stefan li Rous]

Anahita said:
> As for salt, there were different grades - i think this may have been
> discussed on this list, too. Really white salt (mined?) was for the
> higher class people at the feast. Less white salts in several grades
> (and evaporated sea salt is often greyish and there were different
> grades of this, too) for different classes of diners, including those
> who were not eating at table but in the kitchen or somewhere else. I
> think i read this in "Fast and Feast" by Henisch...

This is generally correct. Different salt sources also produced salt
that was best for different uses. The cheaper, large grained sea salt
was actually preferred for salting fish and meats because not only was
it cheaper but it did a better job for this use than the finer grained,
purer salt mined from brine pools or salt mines.

Another thing we need to be careful of when looking at both salt
and pepper consumption in period, was that a large part of it,
especially salt, was in food preservation. While some of this would
remain in the food after soaking, much of it would be washed/soaked
away.

For more info on this subject, see these files in the Florilegium:
salt-msg          (50K) 11/10/00    Medieval salt production and use.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/COMMERCE/salt-msg.html
salt-comm-art     (18K)  1/ 9/97    "Salt of the Earth" by Lord Xaviar.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/COMMERCE/salt-comm-art.html

--
THLord 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 ****