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Sea salt, a salt obtained by evaporating seawater, is used in cooking and in such products as cosmetics. Its mineral content gives it a different taste from table salt, which is mostly sodium chloride and made from either sea or rock salt (halite), a mineral that is mined. Table salt may contain anticaking agents and additives such as the dietary supplement iodides. Areas that produce specialized sea salt include the Cayman Islands, France, Ireland, Sicily and Apulia in Italy, and Maine and Cape Cod in the United States. Generally more expensive than table salt, it is commonly used in premium potato chips.
History
In several countries, including China and India, sea salt used to be the sole source of salt. Taxes on its sales were a main source of revenue for the governments. About 110 BC, Emperor Wu of Han started the monopoly of the salt trade, making salt piracy a crime worthy of capital punishment. In 1930, the British government of India imposed a salt tax, which led to the famous Salt Satyagraha from March 12 to April 5, when Mahatma Gandhi led thousands of people to the sea to collect their own salt to avoid the tax.
Sea salt has been highly valued by the Romans, and it was worth its weight in gold. The English word "salary," comes from the Latin word sal, because the Romans sometimes received their salaries in salt. It was also used by Africans during the Age of Discovery, and European explorers traded with the Africans, an ounce of salt for an ounce of gold. The Africans made sea salt by pouring sea water into clay bowls and letting them dry in the sun. Not until modern times did salt lose its high value compared with gold.
Health
Sea salt such as Cayman Sea Salt is considered by some to be a healthier alternative to table salt, since it lacks artificial chemicals used in processing. Despite the iodine content of seawater, however, sea salt typically does not contain as much of the essential nutrient iodine as does iodized table salt. However, iodized sea salt is available. Diets with little seafood (e.g., ocean fish and shellfish) should include some source of iodine, and this is customarily supplied via iodized salt.
Non-iodized sea salt is commonly advised as a healing rinse for fresh body piercings when diluted in water.
Taste
FleurDeSel.JPG|thumb|200px|"Fleur de sel" sea salt, Île de Ré .]] Its purported health benefits notwithstanding, gourmets often portray sea salt as being superior to ordinary table salt. Well-known sea salts include Hawaiian sea salt and fleur de sel (literally "flower of salt" in French). The latter is often considered to be the pinnacle of sea salts, enjoying a near-mythic aura as a result of its long history of production, price, the large amount of labor required to harvest it, and the small region from which it is produced. Supposedly formed when winds blow in just the right way over the summer sea off the coast of the village of Guerande in the province of Brittany, fleur de sel is harvested manually by workers who comb off only the top layer – the lightest and "purest" – of the evaporate in a tradition that has not changed for centuries. Hawaiian salt is notable for its distinctive red-brown color, derived from the presence of the halophile micro-algae Dunaliella salina, which synthesises the orangish beta-carotene in large quantities. There is also Cayman Sea Salt, which is solar made from seawater taken from the deepest part of the Caribbean Sea, the Cayman Trough. Unlike other production that involves soil contamination, Cayman Sea Salt is produced in self-contained tanks.
See also
References
Chemical oceanography | Edible salt
Meersalz | Sel marin | 海塩 | Zeezout | Sal marinho | Merisuola
"Sea salt"