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Just after I asked you guys how to get rid of that high salt content in Ramen a few weeks ago, here I am pouring it on (nudge nudge) this week. This post contains 27% of your daily value for salt, one of the most important compounds and foodstuffs known to man.
• Of course, salt has many other uses besides enhancing flavor and preserving food. As most of you know, it was also used to preserve humans. One of the most interesting naturally-occurring cases is that of the “Iranian Salt Men,” whose remains from 1800 years ago have been preserved naturally in salt mines. Even their hair stayed intact!
• You may pour salt on everything you eat, but you certainly don’t pour … bleach? Still, Clorox bleach starts and ends as salt and water. Clorox was in fact founded on converting brine from a salt pond into bleach. This all sounds too good and non-toxic to be true … any chemists want to weigh in with their two cents?
• One major non-food related use of salt is for de-icing roads. Not something we much think about here in Hotlanta, but “in the United States, only 8 percent of salt production is for food. The largest single use for American salt, 51 percent, is for de-icing roads.” Salt was first used in this capacity in the 1930s.
• Speaking of the 1930s—1930 itself to be exact—it was the year Gandhi and 78 other men walked 240 miles from the Sabarmati Ashram to the Sea of Dandi, in an act of civil disobedience against the British Salt Tax (which forbade the production or selling of salt by anyone but the British government, and also heavily taxed salt in general). After arriving at the Dandi coastline, Gandhi illegally collected salt and encouraged others to do so, for which he was arrested—a seminal moment in the movement for Indian independence.
• There are many uses for salt, but what about varieties (such as iodized)? What’s the deal with that umbrella girl? In the early 20th century, Michigan seemed to have a high prevalence of goiter. (A 1922 study even identified it as a “goiter belt.”) The Michigan State Medical Society and a man by the name of Dr. David Murray Cowie took up the cause and eventually tried to promote the use of iodized salt (potassium iodine added to salt) as a solution. Michigan salt producers took their advice, and Morton’s took it national in the fall of 1924. For more on salt additives, check this out.
• If you’re like me and the early Romans (the word “salary” originates from the word for money allotted to Roman soldiers for the purchase of salt; hence, their pay), and you can’t get enough of salt in general, try visiting the Salt Museum in Hutchinson, Kansas. Has anyone ever been?
• Other stops on your Salty Tour of the US might include the mystical wonder of the Galos Caves in Chicago, and of course the Great Salt Lake in Utah. At the end of your salty journey, find relaxation at a Salt Spa for a mere $15.
• Take this site with a grain of salt, you salty dogs, but it has theories on the origins of some common salt-related phrases that might make it worth its salt. Ok, I’m just rubbing salt in the wound now. Seriously, I’m stopping.
Hungry for more? Venture into the Dietribes archive.
‘Dietribes’ appears every Wednesday. Food photos taken by Johanna Beyenbach. You might remember that name from our post about her colorful diet.
Comments (17)
Comment
For an international flavor (wink wink) you can visit the Wieliczka Salt Mine in Poland. At only 15 zloty for the tour you’d be stupid not to do it!
ps: Allison, I actually went there with your cousin. He loves salt.
posted by Els on 4-30-2008 at 4:40 pm
Chemical engineer here. I am not an expert on chloralkali products, but I know water chemistry pretty well. In a perfect situation, bleach manufacture is simply bubbling chlorine gas through sodium hydroxide. And mostly, that *IS* the case. However, there are a few problems. Dealing with the unreacted chlorine, not allowing the chlorine or bleach to react with the walls of the pipes or vessels or storage containers, etc. And when bleach breaks down, it should only form salt (NaCl) and water. But also, what about that 5%-2% of other stuff referred to in the chlorox page? Most often, sodium chlorate (NaClO3) and other chlorinated things. I believe that NaClO3 is a suspected carcinogen??? But really, not very much is formed, and sewage plants can generally reduce the chlorate to insignificant levels.
Bleach is a fairly strong oxidizing agent, and will react with lots of things, often chlorinating them. Stating that “no dioxins are formed” is kind of a cop-out, it all depends on what substrates are around for the bleach to react with. Pure bleach on its own or with distilled water, won’t produce dioxin. But that’s not realistic. I would say that in general, very little dioxin will be formed in any normal situation. Same thing for there being no bioaccumulation… lots of chlorinated things WILL bioaccumulate, and bleach can indeed form chlorinated things.
All that said, and stating again that I’m not an expert, I personally have no problem using bleach for some purposes — laundry, sanitizing stuff, etc.
Bleach is also used to sanitize drinking water — without bleach (or chlorine gas which in this application is basically the same thing), we would still be plagued by cholera, polio, typhoid fever, etc. Not nice. So in that sense, bleach saves the lives of many million people. Of course, too much bleach in the wrong kind of water can also form chloroform, which can cause cancer. But getting cancer 20 years down the line is better than getting cholera and dying tomorrow in a pool of your own excrement.
So, bleach is great stuff, but I hold no delusions that bleach is as pure as the whitest snow — it’s not.
OK, that was long and rambling. Hopefully another chemist will join in and agree with me, or point out where I’m wrong.
posted by Mark on 4-30-2008 at 4:52 pm
i love salt! i was so happy to visit a salt mine in germany when i was younger. i couldn’t tell you where it was off the top of my head but wow it was amazing in there!
posted by stef on 4-30-2008 at 5:33 pm
I agree, Els, the Wieliczka salt mine is awesome. not that I went in, small claustrophobia issue…but I bet that is where stef went also. there are statues and chandeliers and stuff carved all out of salt.
posted by kari on 4-30-2008 at 11:56 pm
Some swimming pools are sanitized by adding salt instead of chlorine. These pools still have plenty of chlorine in them though because the salt somehow breaks down into chlorine in the water.
posted by Swimmer on 5-1-2008 at 12:11 am
Not a chemist, but instead a lifeguard. Sodium Hypochlorite (commonly known as bleach) is used to disinfect many swimming pools. As was stated above, the chlorine oxidizes the cell wall of nasty disease causing bacteria (and other stuff, like your swim suit). Salt water pools use a current of electricity to break apart NaCl molecules into sodium and chlorine.
Of course the proper action of all this is dependant on other water quality factors, including pH.
Correct (and forgive) me if I’m wrong, I’m going on a year of college chemistry and years of work experience.
posted by Anne on 5-1-2008 at 12:20 am
I can’t think of another rock you can eat.
posted by Kate on 5-1-2008 at 4:36 am
to further embelish Els’comment the mine in Poland is not just an ordinary salt mine. Down several levels in the mine there is a fully carved cathedral, complete with alter, statuary, 30ft ceilings adorned with salt chandeliers…they used to have regular church services for the miners, then later used the open areas for ballroom dancing and entertainment..now some areas are used for medicinal purposes..I’ve never been but would certainly spend the pittence to go…a great read is Mark Kurlansky’s book..”Salt”
posted by ziggy on 5-1-2008 at 7:03 am
Funny that the photo at the top of the page should include Tabasco. The place where that brand of hot sauce is made, Avery Island, is actually a huge dome of rock salt, three miles long and two and a half miles wide. The salt dome has been used by centuries, first by Native Americans, then in Civil War when it was the only reliable source of salt for Confederate troops. Today, Cargill operates the mine, but it will likely close in 50 years or less because it will no longer be safe to mine the salt.
Along with the salt dome, Avery Island, which is located southeast of Lafayette, is home to an incredible bird and wildlife sanctuary. The sanctuary features a shrine holding a centuries-old Buddha, imported by the McIlhenny family (makers of Tabasco) long before it would have been considered politically incorrect to do so. The sanctuary and the Tabasco plants are open for tours.
(I don’t work for Avery Island or Tabasco, I just think the island is an incredible place).
posted by Lindsey on 5-1-2008 at 8:49 am
I’ve been fortunate to have been to two salt mines on two seperate trips to Europe.
The first was an old mine just outside of Salzburg, Austria. It’s very interesting (to me) to see the wealth it brought to such a wonderful city.
The second was this past summer in Halstatt, Austria. It is one of the world’s oldest salt mines. Because of the wealth and importance of this mine the town gave birth to an era called the Hallstatt (from the eighth century to the fifth century BC).
posted by Paul on 5-1-2008 at 9:49 am
I only like salt on my roads, and not in my meals. Many (good) chefs agree: adding salt to enhance flavor only means the meal is bland and the chef was bad.
posted by PeteRepeat42 on 5-1-2008 at 10:06 am
Sifto Salt has a mine (I believe the largest salt mine in the world) in Goderich, Ontario. The Sifto underworld is about one and one half miles wide and extends 2 miles under Lake Huron. (!!) Unfortunately I don’t think they give tours - they even turned down the curious Queen Elizabeth II when she visited.
posted by AMR on 5-1-2008 at 10:11 am
I refuse to add extra salt to my meals, but my boyfriend adds salt to EVERYTHING. It drives me nuts. I tried to wean him off of it by introducing pepper as a healthier way to add flavor, but he just started sprinkling both on his food. Gah!
posted by Jess on 5-1-2008 at 12:11 pm
Try reading “Salt” by Mark Kurlansky to learn about salt’s role in the history of the world. It’s seriously fascinating.
posted by Laura M. on 5-1-2008 at 1:35 pm
It’s wild to think that the most vital substance used in ancient societies is a rock. Especially now since it’s a rock that we consider commonplace.
A few months ago, my family switched to sea salt in our cooking because I’d read that it contains more minerals that the body needs that iodized salt does. I’m not sure if that’s true, but i do know that we don’t have to use as much since it has a stronger flavor.
posted by heather on 5-1-2008 at 2:10 pm
It should be mentioned in a story about salt that salt used to be traded pound for pound for gold - back when nomads carried huge slabs of salt across the Sahara desert on the backs of camels - also back when Timbuktu was a thriving city at the crossroads of these trade routes.
posted by Julie Germain on 5-1-2008 at 3:44 pm
In regards to adding salt to food, the theory is that you shouldn’t have to add salt at the table because the chef should have seasoned adequately during the cooking process, not that there shouldn’t be salt used. I almost never salt at the table, except sometimes french fries and breakfast eggs.
posted by Julia on 5-2-2008 at 3:56 pm