Bottom Of The Barrel

Salt N Peppers here [and were in effect]

Ever wonder where Salt and Pepper comes from [the often used condiment not the mid 80's hip hop group from Queens, New York]? We reach for these spices every day yet I wasn't sure how that wonderful black and white powery substaces got in my kitchen. So let's take a look...

Salt for home use is produced using 3 basic methods: solar evaporation of seawater or saline lakewater, solution mining and vacuum pan evaporation and conventional deep-shaft (rock salt) mining. Solar salt production occurs when salt water evaporates in successive ponds until the brine is fully concentrated and salt crystallizes on the floor of the crystallizing ponds. Solution mining [and deep-shaft mining] are methods of actually mining for existing salt deposits. Lastly [and not least because it is the most used method] is vacuum pan evaporation where we use vaccum machinery to emulate the solar evaporation method expect it is completely controlled. Did you know that every cell of your body contains salt and that salt is used in manufacturing an estimated 14,000 products? Neither did I.

Pepper, on the other hand, is actually the fruit of the Black Pepper plant which is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae. In dried form, the fruit is often referred to as peppercorns and by grinding this fruit into a powder you get black ground pepper. The black pepper plant is native to South India and is extensively cultivated there and elsewhere in tropical regions. Dried ground pepper is one of the most common spices in European cuisine and its descendants and ground black peppercorn, usually referred to simply as "pepper", may be found on nearly every dinner table in some parts of the world, often alongside table salt. Did you know that Peppercorns are, by monetary value, the most widely traded spice in the world, accounting for 20 percent of all spice imports in 2002 and Vietnam has become the world's largest producer and exporter of pepper (82,000 long tons in 2003)? Some of that I actually did sort of know.

Well there you have it, Salt and Pepper - from the oean waters to the fruit of the vine, they are our most basic spices. Having both been used for the last 4000 years, these two common household items are absolutely in effect and here to stay.

Labels: Did you know

posted by TheWino @ 9:41 AM