Fun Facts About Salt Crystals

Salt, along with its partner pepper, appears on nearly every American table.

According to the Salt Institute, there are more than 14,000 known uses for what food scientist and celebrity chef Alton Brown calls a "miraculous molecular tag team." Salt crystals preserve Egyptian mummies and cans of Campbell's soup, travel to Earth in meteors from outer space and crisscross the globe as ethereal works of art, keep winter roads safe and safely introduce school children to the wonder of science experiments.

Scientific

Chemists define the mineral halite, or common table salt, as sodium chloride (NaCl). The combination of sodium, an unstable metal that burns when wet, and chloride, a derivative of the poisonous gas chlorine, creates the world's most widely used preservative and food condiment.

Culinary

Human taste buds can detect four flavors: sweet, sour, bitter and salty. While many different foods activate both the sweet and sour responses, only one substance ever registers as salty -- salt. Salt crystals accentuate the way our taste buds perceive all flavors, which explains why a sprinkle of salt sweetens a not-quite-ripe melon and a pinch of salt bolsters the flavor intensity of a chocolate cake.

Linguistic

Ancient Greeks purchased slaves with bags of salt crystals and expressed buyer's remorse with the phrase "not worth his salt." The word "salary" derived from "salt," reflecting its use as currency in ancient times. Early Romans salted their leafy greens and vegetables, leading to the word "salad."

References

• Salt Institute: About Salt
• Salt 101 Laboratory: What is Salt
• Science of Cooking: NACL Sodium Chloride -- Table Salt
• Salt Works: History of Salt