Salt!

OK, so a little late on this bandwagon, but the book Salt: A World History is actually pretty interesting. I read a passage yesterday about how in ancient Roman times a sort of fish-oil (salted rotted fish, called garam) was used in place of salt in many dishes. Some considered it to be an extravagant addition to their food while others thought it was a putrid slime not meant for human consumption. After reading how it is made, I might have to agree with the later.

To make the sauce, the fish scraps were put in earthen jars with alternating layers of salt and weighted on the top to keep them submerged in the pickle that developed as salt drew moisture out of the fish.

Usually this happens out in the sun for days and days.

Then, this morning, Angela (my Korean tutor, who is also a vegan and trying to help us with being vegan for lent) began to rant about how much she hated fish oils in kimchi. She then went on to say how many Koreans use this fish oil in dishes instead of sogum (salt).

Don't you love it when things in your life overlap. I thought this was a practice that had been disposed of after the fall of the Romans, but I guess not. It doesn't really surprise me though. Kimchi, (fermented cabbage) is the single most popular food in Korea, it doesn't seem strange that salted fish left to ferment and repel juices in the hot sun for a month would also be quite popular for consumption.

Bottoms up!

Here are a few other facts about salt:

• It's the only rock that we eat


• The word salary is actually derived from the Roman word for salt, sal, because many people were paid in salt for services. So were soldiers, which is how we get that word as well. It comes from the French word, solde, meaning pay (referring historically to being paid in salt).


• In order to age cheese all you need is time and salt. It takes two years for salt to get to the middle of a wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. That's a long time! All that you need to make cheese according to Mark Kurlansky is milk and salt.

• Salzburg, Austria is translated literally as 'salt town.'

Apologies in advance for all of you out there bored out of your mind with salt. This is only part one, as I have not yet finished the book. Yay!