Salt: Grain of Life
(Part of the Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History Series)
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Book Overview
For the sake of salt, Rome created a system of remuneration (from which we get the word "salary"), nomads domesticated the camel, the Low Countries revolted against their Spanish oppressors, and Gandhi marched against the tyranny of the British. Through the ages, salt has conferred status, preserved foods, and mingled in the blood, sweat, and tears of humanity. Today, chefs of haute cuisine covet it in its most exotic forms--underground salt deposits, Hawaiian black lava salt, glittery African crystals, and pink Peruvian salt from the sea carried in bricks on the backs of llamas.
From proverbs to technical arguments, from anecdotes to examples of folklore, chemist and philosopher Pierre Laszlo takes us through the kingdom of "white gold." With "enthusiasm and freshness" (Le Monde) he mixes literary analysis, history, anthropology, biology, physics, economics, art history, political science, chemistry, ethnology, and linguistics to create a full body of knowledge about the everyday substance that rocked the world and brings zest to the ordinary. Laszlo explains the history behind Morton Salt's slogan "When it rains, it pours " and looks into the plight of the salt miner, as well as spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance. Salt is a tour de force about a chemical compound that is one of the very foundations of civilization.Format:Hardcover
Language:English
ISBN:0231121989
ISBN13:9780231121989
Release Date:August 2001
Publisher:Columbia University Press
Length:256 Pages
Weight:0.05 lbs.
Dimensions:0.8" x 6.2" x 9.3"
Grade Range:Postsecondary and higher
Customer Reviews
1 rating
Not a kitchen bookshelf book !
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 22 years ago
Even if it's here as a cooking book it'snot one. The writer is a french scientist whose speciality is chemistry. The book deals with the history of salt through economy, epistemology, proverbs and everyday life.Very enjoyable.
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