Precious Salt

Salt is a precious product which has been part of cooking art either for seasoning or preserving food; it is a source of sodium but as everything else must be used reasonably.

In the Old Testament, reference is made to salt as an offering to God. Homer, the great poet of ancient Greece, considered that those people who did not use salt were poor. As for the Romans, they had salt in such a high appreciation that their soldiers received a special allowance - salarium - for buying salt. The word "salary" takes its origin from the Latin word and still keeps more or less the same meaning as fixed amount paid regularly for a person's work.

According to a few sources, there were periods in the History of man when salt was subject to special taxes which ensured the respective Governments an important money income.

© Dulce Rodrigues