How salt has shaped world history 🧂

It's built empires, defined world economies and transformed culinary heritage worldwide

One of the earliest podcast episodes I did with my friend and fellow Italian food aficionado, Michele Di Pietro, was about salt. I thought I'd share what I know and love about salt with you today.

Of course salt isn't exclusive to Italy by any means but it's an integral part of Italian cuisine - and many other worldwide cuisines. I'm fascinated by all the different ways that salt is used and how important it's been throughout history.

Think about the days before refrigeration. Salt was the key way that ingredients were preserved and stored. Of course now we have refrigeration but we haven't left behind how we preserved with salt in the past.

I think about all the sausages and salumi products I see in gourmet food shops and the deli section of Italian grocery stores. First and foremost in Italy's salt preserved food category is our beloved prosciutto. And then of course guanciale, an ingredient used in so many classic Roman pasta dishes like pasta carbonara and rigatoni all’amatriciana.

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