On 'Salt: A World History' by Mark Kurlansky

I had the good luck to read 'Salt: A World History' by John Kurlansky recently and shook out plenty of historical facts of sustainable interest. There were actually far too many, interesting points in Mark Kurlansky's 2002 Penguin Publishing book to summarize here with any semblance of a taste of the diverse and historically important subject.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt:_A_World_History

One learns a diverse array of interesting American facts of course such as the strategic importance during the American civil war of destroying confederate salt production without which preserving food was difficult in the era before refrigeration. The Erie canal was built preponderantly for the purpose of making delivery of Onadega salt available cheaply to New York City.

In 17th century France prisoners that died before trial were sometimes preserved in salt and brought to trial and public display that they might not escape justice. Prisoners sentenced to death following execution were on occasion likewise salted and presented for public ridicule. Salt has amazing preservative properties. Many salt mine workers and their costumes have been discovered remarkably well preserved from times as early as the 5th century B.C.

http://www.pilgrimhall.org/winslowjohnrecords.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Meese

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_invented_ketchup

The first patent granted in America was given for a fellow named John Winslow about 1622 in Massachusetts for salt production techniques. Politics was not the bane of independent intellectual creativity of course, but instead on occasion supported the development of enterprise to produce salt even during the revolutionary war with cash incentives-the X prize bounties of the day.

Of most contemporary interest-more so than the 1200 feet below the surface of Detroit network of more than 50 miles of road built in a Morton Salt mine-was the curious history of perhaps the first or second American chronicler of tomato ketchup manufacture in America James Meese published the recipe in 1812. Is it possible that President Ronald Reagan's Chief of Staff Edwin Meese influenced the Presidential declaration that 'ketchup is a vegetable'?

Salt for thousands of years was a primary food preservative. Today most people have forgotten about salt cod, making sauerkraut or soy sauce. Kurlansky's excellent book 'Salt: A World History' provides a useful historical brief on that important element of human culture in enjoyable prose.