Salt
   HOME



picture info

Salt
In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as rock salt or halite. Salt is essential for life in general (being the source of the essential dietary minerals sodium and chlorine), and saltiness is one of the basic human tastes. Salt is one of the oldest and most ubiquitous food seasonings, and is known to uniformly improve the taste perception of food. Salting, brining, and pickling are ancient and important methods of food preservation. Some of the earliest evidence of salt processing dates to around 6000 BC, when people living in the area of present-day Romania boiled spring water to extract salts; a salt works in China dates to approximately the same period. Salt was prized by the ancient Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Hittites, Egyptians, and Indians. Salt became a ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Salt In Chinese History
Salt in Chinese history including salt production and salt taxes played key roles in Economic history of China before 1912, economic development, and relations between state and society in China. The lure of salt profits led to technological innovation and Sprouts of capitalism, new ways to organize capital. Debate over government salt policies brought forth conflicting attitudes toward the nature of government, private wealth, the relation between the rich and the poor, while the administration of these salt policies was a practical test of a government's competence. Because salt is a necessity of life, the salt tax (sometimes called the Gabelle, salt gabelle, after the French term for a salt tax) had a broad base and could be set at a low rate and still be one of the most important Taxation in premodern China, sources of government revenue. In early times, governments gathered salt revenues by managing production and sales directly. After innovations in the mid-8th century, im ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Sodium Chloride
Sodium chloride , commonly known as Salt#Edible salt, edible salt, is an ionic compound with the chemical formula NaCl, representing a 1:1 ratio of sodium and chloride ions. It is transparent or translucent, brittle, hygroscopic, and occurs as the mineral halite. In its edible form, it is commonly used as a condiment and curing (food preservation), food preservative. Large quantities of sodium chloride are used in many industrial processes, and it is a major source of sodium and chlorine compounds used as feedstocks for further Chemical synthesis, chemical syntheses. Another major application of sodium chloride is deicing of roadways in sub-freezing weather. Uses In addition to the many familiar domestic uses of salt, more dominant applications of the approximately 250 million tonnes per year production (2008 data) include chemicals and de-icing.Westphal, Gisbert ''et al.'' (2002) "Sodium Chloride" in Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim . Chem ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Salt Tax
A salt tax refers to the direct taxation of salt, usually levied proportionately to the volume of salt purchased. The taxation of salt dates as far back as 300 BC, as salt has been a valuable good used for gifts and religious offerings since 6050 BC. As a result of the successful profitability of the salt tax, its use would diffuse among governments across the world. France, Spain, Russia, England, and India were the main regions to follow the Chinese lead. Salt was used as a currency during the Roman Empire, and towards the end of their reign the Romans began monopolising salt in order to fund their war objectives. Salt was such an important commodity during the Middle Ages that salt production facilities became some of the first state-owned enterprises. Salt is one of the longest standing sources of revenue for governments; the taxation policy was so successful due to the vital role of salt within the human diet. Salt taxes have been extremely influential in many of the politica ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Salt Mining
Salt mining extracts natural salt deposits from underground. The mined salt is usually in the form of halite (commonly known as rock salt), and extracted from evaporite Formation (geology), formations. History Before the advent of the modern internal combustion engine and earth-moving equipment, mining salt was one of the most expensive and dangerous of operations because of rapid dehydration caused by constant contact with the salt (both in the mine passages and scattered in the air as salt dust) and of other problems caused by accidental excessive sodium intake. Salt is now plentiful, but until the Industrial Revolution, it was difficult to come by, and salt was often mined by slaves or prisoners. Life expectancy for the miners was low. The earliest found salt mine was in Hallstatt, Austria where salt was mined, starting in 5000BC. As salt is a necessity of life, pre-industrial governments were usually keen to exercise stringent control over its production, often through ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Salt Road
A salt road (also known as a salt route, salt way, saltway, or salt trading route) refers to any of the Prehistory, prehistoric and Recorded history, historical trade routes by which essential salt was transported to regions that lacked it. From the Bronze Age (in the 2nd millennium BC) fixed transhumance routes appeared, like the Ligurian ''drailles'' that linked the maritime Liguria with the ''alpages'', long before any purposely-constructed roadways formed the overland routes by which salt-rich provinces supplied salt-starved ones. Roads The ''Via Salaria'', an ancient Roman road in Italy, eventually ran from Rome (from Porta Salaria in the Aurelian Walls) to ''Castrum Truentinum'' (Porto d'Ascoli) on the Adriatic coast - a distance of . A modern road by this name, part of the SS4 highway, runs from Rome to Osteria Nuova in Orvieto. The Old Salt Route, about , was a medieval route in northern Germany, linking Lüneburg (in Lower Saxony) with the port of Lübeck (in Schleswi ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Halite
Halite ( ), commonly known as rock salt, is a type of salt, the mineral (natural) form of sodium chloride ( Na Cl). Halite forms isometric crystals. The mineral is typically colorless or white, but may also be light blue, dark blue, purple, pink, red, orange, yellow or gray depending on inclusion of other materials, impurities, and structural or isotopic abnormalities in the crystals. It commonly occurs with other evaporite deposit minerals such as several of the sulfates, halides, and borates. The name ''halite'' is derived from the Ancient Greek word for "salt", ἅλς (''háls''). Occurrence Halite dominantly occurs within sedimentary rocks where it has formed from the evaporation of seawater or salty lake water. Vast beds of sedimentary evaporite minerals, including halite, can result from the drying up of enclosed lakes and restricted seas. Such salt beds may be hundreds of meters thick and underlie broad areas. Halite occurs at the surface today in playas in reg ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Rock Salt (halitite) (Billianwala Salt Member, Salt Range Formation, Ediacaran To Lower Cambrian; Khewra Salt Mine, Salt Range, Pakistan) 14
Halite ( ), commonly known as rock salt, is a type of salt, the mineral (natural) form of sodium chloride (sodium, Nachlorine, Cl). Halite forms Cubic (crystal system), isometric crystals. The mineral is typically colorless or white, but may also be light blue, dark blue, purple, pink, red, orange, yellow or gray depending on inclusion of other materials, impurities, and structural or isotopic abnormalities in the crystals. It commonly occurs with other evaporite deposit minerals such as several of the Sulfate mineral, sulfates, Halide mineral, halides, and Borate mineral, borates. The name ''halite'' is derived from the Ancient Greek word for "salt", ἅλς (''háls''). Occurrence Halite dominantly occurs within sedimentary rocks where it has formed from the evaporation of seawater or salty lake water. Vast beds of sedimentary evaporite minerals, including halite, can result from the drying up of endorheic, enclosed lakes and restricted seas. Such salt beds may be hundreds ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Basic Tastes
The gustatory system or sense of taste is the sensory system that is partially responsible for the perception of taste. Taste is the perception stimulated when a substance in the mouth reacts chemically with taste receptor cells located on taste buds in the oral cavity, mostly on the tongue. Taste, along with the sense of smell and trigeminal nerve stimulation (registering texture, pain, and temperature), determines flavors of food and other substances. Humans have taste receptors on taste buds and other areas, including the upper surface of the tongue and the epiglottis. The gustatory cortex is responsible for the perception of taste. The tongue is covered with thousands of small bumps called papillae, which are visible to the naked eye. Within each papilla are hundreds of taste buds. The exceptions to this is the filiform papillae that do not contain taste buds. There are between 2000 and 5000Boron, W.F., E.L. Boulpaep. 2003. Medical Physiology. 1st ed. Elsevier S ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Saltiness
The gustatory system or sense of taste is the sensory system that is partially responsible for the perception of taste. Taste is the perception stimulated when a substance in the mouth biochemistry, reacts chemically with taste receptor cells located on taste buds in the oral cavity, mostly on the tongue. Taste, along with olfaction, the sense of smell and trigeminal nerve stimulation (registering texture, pain, and temperature), determines Flavoring, flavors of food and other substances. Humans have taste receptors on taste buds and other areas, including the upper surface of the tongue and the epiglottis. The gustatory cortex is responsible for the perception of taste. The tongue is covered with thousands of small bumps called lingual papillae, papillae, which are visible to the naked eye. Within each papilla are hundreds of taste buds. The exceptions to this is the filiform papillae that do not contain taste buds. There are between 2000 and 5000Boron, W.F., E.L. Boulpaep. 200 ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Salting (food)
Salting is the preservation of food with dry edible salt."Historical Origins of Food Preservation."University of Georgia, National Center for Home Food Preservation
Accessed June 2011.
It is related to pickling in general and more specifically to brining also known as fermenting (preparing food with brine, that is, salty water) and is one form of
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Sodium
Sodium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Na (from Neo-Latin ) and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 element, group 1 of the periodic table. Its only stable isotope is 23Na. The free metal does not occur in nature and must be prepared from compounds. Sodium is the Abundance of elements in Earth's crust, sixth most abundant element in the Earth's crust and exists in numerous minerals such as feldspars, sodalite, and halite (NaCl). Many salts of sodium are highly water-soluble: sodium ions have been Leaching (chemistry), leached by the action of water from the Earth, Earth's minerals over eons, and thus sodium and chlorine are the most common dissolved elements by weight in the oceans. Sodium was first isolated by Humphry Davy in 1807 by the electrolysis of sodium hydroxide. Among many other useful sodium compounds, sodium hydroxide (lye) is used in Soap, soap manufac ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Pickling
Pickling is the process of food preservation, preserving or extending the shelf life of food by either Anaerobic organism, anaerobic fermentation (food), fermentation in brine or immersion in vinegar. The pickling procedure typically affects the food's texture and flavor. The resulting food is called a ''pickle'', or, if named, the name is prefaced with the word "pickled". Foods that are pickled include vegetables, fruits, mushrooms, meats, fish, dairy and eggs. Pickling solutions are typically highly acidic, with a pH of 4.6 or lower, and high in salt, preventing Enzyme, enzymes from working and micro-organisms from multiplying. Pickling can preserve Decomposition, perishable foods for months, or in some cases years. Antimicrobial herbs and spices, such as mustard seed, garlic, cinnamon or cloves, are often added. If the food contains sufficient moisture, a pickling brine may be produced simply by adding dry salt. For example, sauerkraut and Korean kimchi are produced by salti ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]