More Salt Facts & Lore

• There is enough salt in the ocean to cover the continents 500 feet deep.
• Up until the 16th century, it wasn't uncommon for convicted criminals to be sentenced to life sentences in European salt mines.
• One of the most secure storage facilities in the world is in a hollowed-out salt deposit 650 feet under Hutchinson, Kansas. Supposedly even the original negative of "Gone With The Wind" is there.
• In the 1920s, iodine was added to American table salt to help prevent hypothyroidism, which was near epidemic levels at the time. Today, it is nearly nonexistent.
• During the Renaissance, salt storage boxes or "cellars", crafted for wealthy tables, were often fashioned from gold and jewels.
• 75% of the sodium we consume is in the form of processed foods.
• English towns that were once salt centers have "wich" in their names (Norwich, Greenwich). In Germany and Austria salz or hall are used.
• The Chinese were pumping brine from wells before the time of Christ. They even devised bamboo pipelines to transport it to the boiling facility.
• Many American frontiersmen, including Daniel Boone, were taught how to make salt by Native Americans.
• Some of the first American ad campaigns were for the many salt companies that popped up at the close of the 19th century.
• During the Middle Ages, salt was used as a symbol of purity not only because it could preserve things, but because it was often the whitest thing around.
• Number of crystals in a pound of table salt: 5,370,000. Number of crystals in a pound of kosher salt: 1,370,000…give or take a crystal or two.
• Some of the oldest roads still in use in Europe and Africa were originally built to move salt.
• To make homemade play dough, mix 1/2 cup of salt with 1 cup of flour, 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, and 1/2 cup of water.
• The majority of salt produced in the United States is used to keep winter roads ice-free.