They also used it to preserve the wondrous 1,000-year-old egg, which “takes about 100 days to make, and will keep for another 100 days”-give or take, evidently, 365,000 days.

Salt enters written history (as so many things do) with the Chinese, who had the first known salt works, imposed the first known salt tax, and fought the first known salt war. Its importance has trailed endless strife. Salt keeps the muscles pumping, the blood flowing, the brain firing. But maybe he has a point: Without salt, Kurlansky states at the outset, there would be no life, let alone a nifty preservative for everything from herring to mummies. Perhaps the author slightly oversells his subject by claiming it is far more important and interesting than the evolution of language or the harnessing of fire. 15 recipes, 4o illus., 7 maps.A lively social history that does for salt what Kurlansky previously did for Cod (1997). 6) got to the finish line first but doesn't compare to this artful narrative. Pierre Laszlo's Salt: Grain of Life (Forecasts, Aug. A piquant blend of the historic, political, commercial, scientific and culinary, the book is sure to entertain as well as educate. Throughout his engaging, well-researched history, Kurlansky sprinkles witty asides and amusing anecdotes. Kurlansky traces the history of salt's influences from prehistoric China and ancient Africa (in Egypt they made mummies using salt) to Europe (in 12th-century Provence, France, salt merchants built 'a system of solar evaporation ponds') and the Americas, through chapters with intriguing titles like 'A Discourse on Salt, Cadavers and Pungent Sauces.' The book is populated with characters as diverse as frozen-food giant Clarence Birdseye Gandhi, who broke the British salt law that forbade salt production in India because it outdid the British salt trade and New York City's sturgeon king, Barney Greengrass. Called a 'divine substance' by Homer, salt is an essential part of the human body, was one of the first international commodities and was often used as currency throughout the developing world.

Yet salt, Kurlansky asserts, has 'shaped civilization.' Although now taken for granted, these square crystals are not only of practical use, but over the ages have symbolized fertility (it is, after all, the root of the word 'salacious') and lasting covenants, and have been used in magical charms. Only Kurlansky, winner of the James Beard Award for Excellence in Food Writing for Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World, could woo readers toward such an off-beat topic.

Salt by Mark Kurlansky