Salt or pepper?

Question

Which is the most important in food history?

Answer 1

Salt, most likely.

The fact is that throughout history, salt--called sodium chloride by chemists--has been such an important element of life that it has been the subject of many stories, fables and folktales (such as "Salt on a Magpie's Tail" from Sweden) and is frequently referenced in fairy tales. Some cultures ascribe magical powers to salt. Charles Dickens penned a Victorian era Ghost Story "To Be Taken With A Grain of Salt." Forty years later, author George Gissing's last book was "The Salt of the Earth." Salt so infuses our culture that there are innumerable quotes drawing on salt. There is even a current "Words of Salt" literary competition, keeping alive the link between salt and culture.

Salt served as money at various times and places, and it has been the cause of bitter warfare. Offering bread and salt to visitors, in many cultures, is traditional etiquette. It is used in making pottery. While we have records of the importance of salt in commerce in Medieval times and earlier, in some places like the Sahara and Nepal, salt trading today gives a glimpse of what life may have been like centuries ago. Alchemists use the square symbol to represent salt. "Salt," is common in the jargon of other professions.

Unsurprisingly, evidence shows salt was important as long ago as when mastadons roamed the earth. Salt was in general use long before history, as we know it, began to be recorded. Some 2,700 years B.C.-about 4,700 years ago-there was published in China the Peng-Tzao-Kan-Mu, probably the earliest known treatise on pharmacology. A major portion of this writing was devoted to a discussion of more than 40 kinds of salt, including descriptions of two methods of extracting salt and putting it in usable form that are amazingly similar to processes used today. Chinese folklore recounts the discovery of salt. Salt production has been important in China for two millenia or more. Nomads spreading westward were known to carry salt.

Egyptian art from as long ago as 1450 B.C. records salt-making. More recent examples are drawings of a 15th century French salt evaporation plant, a 16th century Persian picture of a Kurdish salt merchant and a 17th century Italian print offering instructions in distilling salt.

Salt was of crucial importance economically. A far-flung trade in ancient Greece involving exchange of salt for slaves gave rise to the expression, "not worth his salt." The Romans were prodigious builders of saltworks as well as other vital infrastructure (for example, in Poland and England). Special salt rations given early Roman soldiers were known as "salarium argentum," the forerunner of the English word "salary." References to salt abound in languages around the globe, particularly regarding salt used for food. From the Latin "sal," for example, comes such other derived words as "sauce" and "sausage." Salt was an important trading commodity carried by explorers. Countries like Japan without salt deposits feel disadvantaged.

Salt has played a vital part in religious ritual in many cultures, symbolizing immutable, incorruptible purity. There are more than 30 references to salt in the Bible and both the Bible and the Talmud contain insights into salt's cultural significance in Jewish society. Salt has earned a reference in the Catholic Encyclopedia, using expressions like "salt of the earth". And there are many other literary and religious references to salt, including use of salt on altars representing purity, and use of "holy salt" by the Unification Church. Using salt as an indicator, some claim some of the Lost Tribes of Israel went to Japan. (Visitors: feel free to click on the "e-mail Salt Institute" icon at the bottom of the page and share additional such references).

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European history
The black pepper plant is also used to produce white pepper, both of which are among the most important Indian spices. Peppercorns have been eagerly sought by Europeans since ancient times. The pungent fruits, or peppercorns, were known in classical Rome and were well established as an article of commerce. The Emperor Marcus Aurelius imposed a customs tax on white pepper and the related species long pepper (Piper longum) arriving at Alexandria, but exempted black pepper.

Long after the decline of the Roman empire, Europeans continued to prize pepper. It was the lure of pepper and other spices which brought the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama to the Indian coast in 1498. Other European countries were soon to follow and set up rival trading companies.

By the Middle Ages, pepper was of great importance in Europe to season or preserve meats, and to overcome the odours of rancid food. Peppercorns were very expensive and were accepted in lieu of money in dowries, taxes and rents. This still survives in the phrase 'peppercorn rent', which now means virtually free - exactly the opposite! A pepperers' guild of wholesale merchants was founded in London in 1180 and was later incorporated into a spicers' guild. In 1429 it was succeeded by the Grocers' Company which still exists today. The original pepperers and spicers were the predecessors of apothecaries, emphasising the role spices played in traditional medicine.

When the pattern of the monsoon winds over the Indian Ocean was deciphered in the 1st century AD, ships voyaged to India between June and September from the Horn of Africa, using the south-west monsoon, across the open sea. They sailed back utilising the north-east monsoon winds that prevail during the rest of the year. The anonymous 1st-century AD Greek sailor who authored the Periplus maris erythraei (The periplus of the Erythraean Sea) noted that India exported spices, precious stones, muslin and other cotton goods to the West from the port of Muziris in south India. Pepper and ginger would have been India's own exports, but other spices must have come from further east. At this time Pliny mentioned black pepper and wrote ruefully of the annual drain of silver sesterces to India.

Thanks for the question. It made me do some quick research, & what I found was very interesting.

Answer 2

From medieval times to just before the industrial revolution, salt was a hard to come by commodity. It was usually only the well to do that could pay for refined salt. In manor houses, the more important the person was, the closer to the salt he was placed at table. The most important guests were placed "above the salt" with the owner and his family.

So, salt was not only a valuable commodity in it's own right, but was used to judge the importance of people.

Answer 3

Salt is the most important, but I prefer pepper.
I envision that pepper will take over as being more important. Salt used to be valuable because it played a role in preserving food. However, with technology, other chemicals for preservation, etc., pepper can add much more flavor than salt.

Answer 4

salt<3

Answer 5

Salt as it is a flavoring agent, a preservative, and the body requires salt to live but don't overdo it. Salt was so valuable the Romans used to pay their soldiers in salt called salarium which is where the word salary comes from.

Answer 6

Salt.

Answer 7

I like salt better!

Answer 8

salt

Answer 9

salt

Answer 10

Salt. It not only enhances flavor, but it is a preservative, too.

Answer 11

pepper! they use to use pepper as payment for wages earned and other stuff!it was a form of currency as well as other spices!try looking it up
http://www.theepicentre.com/Spices/pepper.html
http://www.pepperindia.com/pepperhistory.htm