Spice up Your Knowledge: Top 12 Entertaining and Surprising Facts About Salt

1. Colorful Crystal Collection

Feeling salty? Embrace your inner rainbow with the vast array of colorful crystals Mother Nature has seasoned: black salt gets its color from flirting with volcanic charcoal, while the subtle sweetness of pink salt makes it blush; blue salt got its hue from a millennial makeover, red salt's volcanic clay rendezvous left it crimson, and grey salt carries the essence of the French sea with a hint of extra iodine and a sodium cutback.
Source => guide.michelin.com

2. Roman Salt Money

Next time you're feeling salty, remember that you might've been richer back in the Roman Empire: Salt was once a prized commodity and actually used as a form of currency, with the Latin word "salarium" meaning "salt money," as Roman soldiers were often paid with it due to its necessity in preserving food and enhancing flavors.
Source => vocabulary.com

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=> Fun Facts about Potassium

3. Mummy's Best Friend

If the Ancient Egyptians had a Yelp account, they'd probably give natron salt a five-star review for its top-notch mummification services: Natron was used by embalmers to efficiently remove all moisture from the body and speed up the preservation process, leaving us with well-preserved mummies even after thousands of years.
Source => si.edu

4. Party Crashing Fish

Talk about a "salty situation"! These clever fish are the ultimate party crashers, going from freshwater soirees to saltwater shindigs without missing a beat: Euryhaline fish, like the striped bass, sturgeon, smelt, salmon, and European Eel, possess the unique ability to adapt to varying salinity levels, allowing them to comfortably swim between freshwater and saltwater environments.
Source => divescotty.com

5. A Punny History

Who knew salt could be so punny? From being "worth their weight in salt" to taking things with a "grain of salt", it seems this humble seasoning has been silently spicing up our idioms for centuries: In ancient times, salt was so valuable that it was used as currency, playing a crucial role in language and communication, inspiring the creation of expressions we still use today.
Source => miragenews.com

6. White Gold of Medieval Times

Once upon a salt shaker, in a land filled with bland food and desperate taste buds, there existed a rare treasure mightier than any dragon's hoard: Behold, the "white gold" of medieval times! But seriously: Salt was so valuable in those days that it was often used as a form of currency, spurring a thriving industry and trade routes throughout Europe, while heavy taxation led to widespread smuggling and even salt-based rebellions.
Source => selectsalt.com

7. Salt's Ice-Melting Trick

Ever heard of ice going on a "sodium bender"? Well, turns out that's actually a thing, sort of: When you add salt to ice, it lowers the freezing point and forms a solution capable of melting ice at temperatures below 32 degrees Fahrenheit, as the mixture of water and dissolved salt boasts a lower freezing point than pure water. Unlucky for our slippery sidewalks, though, this salty trick loses its magic when temperatures drop below zero degrees Fahrenheit.
Source => scientificamerican.com

8. Crusty Culinary Technique

Move over, superheroes – there's a new crust in town, and it's got the power to transform your meals: cooking in a salt crust can enhance flavor and retain moisture by evenly distributing heat and preventing burning, making this Mediterranean culinary technique perfect for dishes like whole fish and even potatoes, ensuring a delightful reveal when cracked open at the table.
Source => kellyscleankitchen.com

9. Tires' Magical Mystery Ride

Who needs fairy dust when we've got salt residue? Every tire's magical mystery ride: Although it generally doesn't cause significant harm to rubber tires, salt can indeed leave a residue on tire treads, but fret not, as consistent cleaning can help keep potential salty side effects to a minimum.
Source => rnrtires.com

10. Salt: Scrabble Savior

In the great game of Scrabble, a match-up that tickles minds and frustrates lesser-wordsmiths, there's one word that – while scoring just a meagre six points – marvellously banishes the spectre of drooling imbeciles and portly-necked fools: "iodised": By simply sprinkling iodised salt on our mundane meals, we manage to curtail mental retardation, goitre, and hypothyroidism in one delectably salty swoop, ensuring that we never, ever run the risk of befuddling our grey matter due to iodine deficiency!
Source => ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

11. Deer's Swanky Mineral Bar

Move over, Bambi's salt bae: Deer have a penchant for hitting up nature's equivalent of a swanky mineral bar when they're craving that salty goodness. No cheap knockoffs for these connoisseurs, though: Choosing a natural Trophy Rock Block provides them with over 60 balanced trace minerals, including calcium, phosphorous, and copper, all without any artificial flavors or sweeteners – a Michelin-starred experience for deer, if you will.
Source => blog.redmondhunt.com

12. Medieval Meal Saver

Before refrigerators, there was the "Medieval Meal Saver": salt! Acting like a food superhero, salt waged war against bacteria and was master of de-moisturizing, all to keep your meat, fish, and veggies fresh(ish): Salting was the most widely used preservation method in medieval Europe, allowing people to sustain themselves during long trips, times of famine, and battle, as it efficiently eliminated moisture, the breeding ground for bacteria.
Source => thoughtco.com