Salt is a vital food product not only for humans, but for all mammals. Without it, gastric juice is not secreted for digesting food.
Therefore, even wild animals seek solonchaks. And herbivores eat hazel bark. In this tree and some others, salt is present in a low concentration due to the fact that the plant absorbs groundwater and deposits sodium chloride.
By the way, ancient hunters and herders sometimes used raw meat for the same reason. After all, sodium chloride is also present in the blood of animals.
For six thousand years now, as a man learned to extract salt. Now on the shelves we see many types of these products.
But if you do not take into account salt with various additives, as well as colored (crystals get a shade due to interspersed minerals and clay), it is divided into only two types: table and sea. Which one to choose?
What type will bring maximum benefits? What is the difference between sea salt and table salt? Our article is devoted to these questions.
The benefits and harms of salt
We have already said that sodium chloride is responsible for the production of acid by the stomach. Salt ions are necessary for many body functions, in particular transmission from the brain to the periphery of nerve impulses and muscle contraction.
Lack of salt in the body leads to increased fatigue, general weakness, muscle and nervous disorders. Sodium chloride deficiency can lead to nausea, dizziness, and headache.
Therefore, the so-called salt-free diets must be treated very carefully and practiced only under the supervision of a doctor. However, salt should not be abused.
The optimal amount, according to doctors, is from four to six grams per day for an adult healthy person. And this is taking into account the fact that we consume salt in various products, starting from bread, where it is almost not felt, to chips, feta cheese and fish snacks.
An excess of this substance in the body can lead to edema, stagnation of fluid, increased arterial and intraocular pressure, cancer of the stomach and cataract. Now consider in more detail sea salt and ordinary. What is the difference between the two? Let's get it right.
Rock salt - what is it?
This type is the most ancient. And not only because mankind learned to extract rock salt eight thousand years ago.
The composition of this product is also very ancient. After all, what is the so-called rock salt? These are crystals of sodium chloride, which were formed as a result of the drying of the ancient seas, splashing on our planet from hundreds to tens of millions of years ago.
Sometimes these deposits are very close to the surface of the earth, forming domes. But most often they are very deep, and for their extraction you need to dig mines.
Despite some mining difficulties, mankind became acquainted with rock salt much earlier than with sea salt. Therefore, it is also called a cookery (that is, a kitchen, one that is added to dishes) or ordinary.
But it is used not only in food, but also as a fertilizer, and in cosmetology. But by and large, what is the difference between sea salt and ordinary? Origin? Not at all!
After all, salt is also sea. It's just that the oceans in which it was once dissolved dried up millions of years ago.
Sea salt production
It is unnecessary to speak about the origin of this type of sodium chloride. The name "sea" speaks for itself. The inhabitants of coasts with a hot climate were the first to get acquainted with this type of salt.
It often happened that the sea during storms filled small indentations. In the heat, these ponds dried up. Water evaporated, leaving shiny crystals at the bottom.
More than four thousand years ago, people thought of helping nature. In the south of France, in Bulgaria, Spain, India, China, Japan, they began to block the shallows with dams, separating it from the rest of the water area. The hot sun completed the job.
In Foggy Albion, where there was little hope for the sun, water from the sea was simply evaporated. And the inhabitants of the North went a different way.
It is noted that the freezing temperature of fresh water is 0 degrees, and salt temperature is slightly lower. When a liquid is converted to ice, it exfoliates.
A very saturated solution forms below. Separating it from fresh ice, you can evaporate crystals with less energy.
What is the difference between sea salt and ordinary, is the way of extraction. It is believed that in the first case it is evaporated, and in the second it is often mined with a pick in the mines. But is it?
Rock salt production
Halite - a mineral that is sodium chloride in the form of a druse (crystal), is not found very often in nature. And the mines where the miners went down to lift trolleys with salt on the mountain are a rarity.
Therefore, in Wieliczka (Poland), Solotvino (Ukraine) and lead tours. The more ancient way to get the stone sediment of the ancient seas was to pour fresh water into a deep pit, wait for the mineral to dissolve, then scoop up the liquid ... and still evaporate.
This is how the product was obtained in the oldest known saltworks Provadiya-Solnitsata in Bulgaria. And it was back in the sixth millennium BC!
Water from a salt source was evaporated in ovens. They were clay and had the shape of a cone.
So is sea salt different from usual in the production method? As you can see, evaporation is used in the extraction of both types of product.
Of course, rock salt from the mines was not subjected to additional heat treatment. But this rarity was worth its weight in gold.
The myth of the uniqueness of sea salt
Modern marketing is imposing on us the idea that sodium chloride extracted from the ocean is much more valuable in chemical composition than that obtained from deposits of earth. They say there are more minerals in sea water, including iodine.
It's time to debunk this myth. What is the difference between sea salt and ordinary? The composition? The analysis shows that in both cases we are dealing with ordinary sodium chloride.
Since the cooked product was formed on the site of dry oceans, it contains the same mineral composition as in sea water. Moreover, iodine is a volatile substance. He first evaporates during the heat treatment of sea water.
The remaining 75 elements, about which modern marketers and advertising producers so trumpet, remain in the sludge, which is carefully separated from the resulting salt by evaporation. After all, the buyer wants to get beautiful white crystals, and not a gray mass.
Therefore, sea salt, as well as purified Extra class, are sodium chloride and nothing more. The remaining impurities are in such an insignificant amount that it is not worth talking about them.
The second myth: the purest sea salt
Advertising producers sometimes contradict each other. So, some of them argue that the difference between sea salt and table salt consists precisely in its purity.
Say, in the stone product there are many impurities left over from the silt of the dried up ancient oceans. This is all true, with the exception of a small detail. Rock salt is also being cleaned.
Unprocessed blocks go for the needs of the chemical industry, for the production of glue, fertilizers, etc. If the Druze halite without impurities, they simply crush.
All the rest are purified by conversion into a solution - brine and further evaporation. Because of this, there are different types of salt - from the highest, Extra, to the third.
As for the "harmful" impurities, they can be present in both stone and marine products. This is potassium ferrocyanide - a substance that is designated as E536 in the international coding system.
It is added so that salt crystals do not coalesce. And the impurity, which will certainly be useful for the body, is iodine.
Third myth: sea salt tastes better
Why do many gourmets and cooks insist on using seasoning, which is obtained by evaporation? Let's first understand what taste is.
This is the smell, texture and, in fact, what the receptors of our language feel. As for the first parameter, sodium chloride does not have it.
Our nose can smell iodine, which is already added to purified salt, but no more. Let's arm ourselves with a magnifying glass and consider how sea salt differs from ordinary salt, literally, through a magnifying glass.
Crystals obtained by evaporation have a different shape: from scales to pyramids. And table salt is as fine as sand. Once in the mouth, for example, on a piece of egg or tomato, it melts very quickly.
We just feel that the food is salty, that's all. Larger crystals do not dissolve so quickly. Their faces, falling on the receptors of the tongue, give delicious bursts of salinity.
But if we cook soup, pasta or boil potatoes, that is, we dissolve the seasoning in water, we will not feel any difference. In addition, large crystals have only those varieties of sea salt, which are evaporated slowly. And because they are more expensive.
The fourth myth: sea salt is saltier than usual
This statement does not hold water. Both species are sodium chloride, which is equally salty. The statement about the overly strong taste of sea condiment is again based on the shape of crystals.
The larger they are, the slower they dissolve. Therefore, our taste buds perceive them longer and brighter. Many argue that if you use sea salt instead of the usual, it will be more economical.
Deep delusion. After all, cooks are used to measuring the required amount of salt with a spoon. But if we take the same volume, then large crystals will fit much less in it than small ones.
Therefore, in a tablespoon there will be 10 grams of table salt, and sea salt - 7-8. But if we season the food based not on volume but on the weight of white powder, the effect will be the same.
Myth five: sea salt is healthier than usual
In this matter, advertising sharks have completely gone too far. Sea salt is evaporated from water. Almost all light substances volatilize, leaving sodium chloride.
The composition may still remain insignificant impurities of sulfate, magnesium, calcium, potassium and other trace elements. Rock salt is also cleaned of sludge deposits. During processing, all the same trace elements also remain in it.
So why is sea salt better than usual? The impurities that manufacturers add to an already refined product. This is, above all, iodine.
This substance is the first to evaporate upon evaporation. But iodine is added to make salt healthier. In more expensive types of seasoning, there are indeed unique elements.
One should recall at least pink Peruvian, red Himalayan, black smoked French salt. They are not cheap, but the benefits and unique taste of such salt justify the high price.
In addition, the product is sold in small packs, which makes it unnecessary to add E536, a crystal anti-caking agent. In fairness, it should be noted that gourmets are experimenting with different types of sea salt.
Therefore, the opinion was created that this species is more useful. These additives really prevent water retention in the body, have a decongestant effect.
Varieties of salt
Since the raw material is cleaned in any case, the product from it is divided into classes. The more thoroughly the refining of the salt, the more sodium chloride in it. In the Extra grade of this substance 99.7 percent.
These are small, snowy white crystals that look like regular cubes under a microscope. To prevent them from caking, the manufacturer adds E536, which is not the most healthy substance, to such table salt.
But the powder remains “fluffy”. It sprinkles perfectly from the salt shaker. The first and second grades of the product are not cleaned so thoroughly. But in the large gray crystals of cheap table salt contains other trace elements, very useful for health.
Marine product is also subdivided into grades. But cleaning here goes a different way. If brine is evaporated quickly, heating it in an oven, then the crystals are small, in the form of flakes.
If you let the sun do its job by drying the flood ponds, we get large pyramidal druses. They influence a unique taste.
That's the difference between sea salt and ordinary table salt: in the first case, you should give preference to the highest grade. If we take the stone type, then coarse grinding.
Salt in antiquity
The northern peoples were not able to evaporate ocean water naturally. Therefore, they did not wonder about how sea salt differs from table salt.
The usual thing for them was only stone. And this salt was very expensive due to its rarity. In the Roman Empire, this product was calculated with legionnaires serving.
This type of barter was called “salari”, which has the same root with the word “salt”. Even in antiquity, the primary importance of this product was understood. Jesus Christ compares his disciples with salt (Matt. 5:13). In the Middle Ages, the value of the product decreased slightly. This was primarily due to the fact that in the Mediterranean began to produce sea salt.
But in northern Europe, the product was literally worth its weight in gold. The wealth of the royal city of Krakow was based on the deposits of the Wieliczka salt cave.
People have long noticed that sodium chloride prevents the development of putrefactive bacteria. Until the invention of refrigerators and the pasteurization process, meat and fish were salted for long-term storage. Therefore, white crystals have always been in honor.
Salt of the Eastern Slavs
In Kievan Rus, the product was valued no less. The salt at the top of the loaf was honored by the highest guests. Because of this product, wars were fought, riots took place (in particular, Moscow in 1648).
If you wanted to say that you know a person very well, they said: "A pound of salt was eaten with him." Scientists estimate that previously people consumed about 4-5 kilograms per year of this product.
Thus, phraseologism means that they have been closely acquainted with this person for a year and a half to two years. In Ukraine, people have long known how sea salt differs from table salt. The Milky Way is called there Chumatsky gent.
It was this way, guided by the stars, that the salt miners went to the Crimea on carts drawn by oxen. Chumaki were wealthy and respected people.
But in Russia at Holy Week they made the so-called Thursday salt. Large crystals were mixed with a crumb of brown bread or leavened ground and calcined in a pan, then crushed in a mortar. Such salt was eaten with Easter eggs.
Modern myths
Now it is believed that a woman who is carrying a child should be pulled on everything salty. But modern research warns: expectant mothers throughout the pregnancy should consume the same amount of product as other people.
Abuse of salt leads to hypertension and weakening of blood circulation, which as a result adversely affects the development of the fetus. But the lack of product is also harmful. Deficiency of salt (sea or ordinary) provokes puffiness, and can also affect the poor development of the kidneys in the child.
Despite the fact that this product is now very inexpensive, its value has not diminished. Salt is an element of heraldry. It is depicted on the arms of those cities where this product was mined. It also defines the names of the settlements - Solikamsk, Soligalich, Usolye-Sibirsky, etc.
Instead of a conclusion
We have debunked a lot of myths created by modern marketers and advertising producers. They impose on us the stereotype that a product created by evaporation of ocean water is more valuable than that which was extracted from the bowels of the earth.
But we clearly answered the question whether sea salt can be replaced with ordinary. After all, both types of product are none other than sodium chloride.