[Sca-cooks] period salt types (was OOP - curries)

[Stefan li Rous]

Petru 'cel Paros' Voda commented:
> don't forget the salt! Lots of salt!!! (preferably sea salt; sources list
> an ever increasing number of types of salt, with which I'm not too familiar
> yet, just having begun my researches in this area, but sea salt seems to
> have been a favourite)

Sea salt was most commonly used for drying/salting food since the large
crystals, created because of the slow speed of solar evaporation, were optimum
for salting meats. It was also the cheapest variety at least until it was
processed further to remove the dirt and other impurities.

You might find these Florilegium files of interest. There are several good books which have come out recently on the history of salt, and I believe these are detailed in the salt-msg file. If they aren't, I can give you a list of the books on salt history in my library.

salt-msg          (40K)  1/23/02    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

Stefan

--
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris            Austin, Texas         StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****