Housewifery

Housewifery - Salt

Do you sit above the salt? Or do you even sit at a table when you're eating? Mostly we sit in our recliners when it's just the two of us, and we read or watch television while eating.

Not so in the time of my grandparents! No recliners, to tv, and certainly no way to eat a meal!

And if, in Grannie's day, you described your friend as being from an "above the salt" family, she would have been very glad you had such a friend.

It's remarkable that such a humble food as salt has played so central a role in human history.

Salt was a valuable commodity in Elizabethan times, and at the dining tables of nobility, or even the higher classes, guests were seated in order of importance measured by the location of the salt-cellar or saler in the center of the table. Distinguished guests sat between the salt and the host "above the salt", while lesser fry were relegated to the boondocks "below the salt." So to say that someone's family was "above the salt" eventually came to mean that they were at least "well-to-do." And if you sat "below the salt" you wouldn't be able to enjoy this expensive and tasty comestible.

Above or below the salt are just a couple of the many English phrases that refer to salt, for example, "worth his salt", "with a grain of salt", "the salt of the earth". This is an indication of the long-standing importance given to salt in society.

In mediaeval England salt was expensive and only affordable by the higher ranks of society. Its value rested on its scarcity. Salt was less easily obtainable in northern Europe than in countries with warmer climates, where it could be obtained more cheaply by the evaporation of seawater. This value is the source of the high symbolic status given to salt in the day-to-day language that originated from England at that period.

At that time the nobility sat at the "high table" and their commoner servants at lower trestle tables. Salt was placed in the center of the high table. Only those of rank had access to it. Those less favored on the lower tables were below or beneath the salt, at a lower table.

The phrase was in use by the late 16th century, as this quotation from Ben Jonson's Cynthia's Revels, 1599 shows: "His fashion is not to take knowledge of him that is beneath him in Cloaths. He never drinks below the salt."

I notice that one of my favorite music groups, England's Steeleye Span has an album titled Below the Salt, and it is touted as a British Folk-rock classic. It, with its twin, Parcel of Rogues, celebrates what many folk songs do as ballads of lowly men and women or those "below the salt". The album cover shows the band in period costume at a feast, while the title refers to practice in the Middle Ages of having salt, something of a rarity, placed in the center of the table separating the family from the servants, who were situated "below the salt".

Salt as a dietary mineral is essential to the life of all animals. And, yes, Virginia, too much salt can be harmful, but so can not enough. Salt has been important in many world religions, including Shinto, Aztec, Celtic, and Christianity. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus referred to his followers as "the salt of the earth" or people who are decent, dependable, and unpretentious.

Salt, a very staple to life, is very important in today's culinary world, so here's a recipe featuring the use of salt in a Salt and Pepper Shrimp Appetizer. It serves four.

Ingredients:

* 1 pound medium shrimp (about 25 shrimp), head removed, deveined, but not shelled
* 2 to 3 tablespoons tapioca starch or cornstarch, as needed
* 1 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
* 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black, white, or Szechuan peppercorns
* 4 cups oil for deep-frying

Preparation:
Soak the shrimp in warm, lightly salted water for 5 minutes. Rinse in cold water, drain and pat dry with paper towels. Lightly coat the shrimp with the tapioca starch or cornstarch.
In a small bowl, mix the salt with the freshly ground peppercorns and set aside.
Heat the oil to 360 degrees Fahrenheit in a deep fat fryer, heavy saucepan with deep sides or a second wok (it is easiest not to deep-fry and stir-fry the shrimp in the same wok). Carefully add the shrimp to the hot oil, 4 to 5 at a time, and deep-fry until they turn bright orange (about 40 seconds). Make sure the temperature does not fall below 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Carefully remove the shrimp with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Continue deep-frying the remainder of the shrimp.
Heat a wok on medium heat. Add the salt and pepper mixture and the deep-fried shrimp. Stir-fry briefly to coat the shrimp in the mixture (20 to 30 seconds). Serve hot.

This recipe comes from the Salt Institute, http://www.saltinstitute.org/. Check out their website for other salt-dependent dishes.