The Condiments - Part One: Salt

Salt and pepper.  In everything.

Today I'm looking at one of the condiments.

Salt; found in mostly every kitchen cupboard and on the table at meal times. According to Wikipedia, salt has not always been used just as a condiment;  there are biblical references, it has played a part in creating and destroying empires, salt was taxed by the French over many centuries and in American history it was a major factor in the outcome of wars.

Closer to home, here in Victoria, the history of salt production began in 1888 when Richard Cheetham - a manufacturing chemist from the UK - began construction on a saltfield near Geelong; six years later the first salt was produced. The Cheetham Salt Co Pty Ltd was set up in 1903 and the company expansion included new works at Laverton and in South Australia. Ongoing business expansion and joint ventures, both here and in New Zealand continued until the latter half of 2012 when this article in Deal Journal Australia covered the sale of the Cheetham salt business to Hong Kong company CK Life Science International. This purchase was  driven by the increasing demand in Asian markets for soy sauce, of which salt is one of the major ingredients.

And so to the local supermarkets and a close look at salt available for home use. If you think salt is just salt, you will have to think again. Here is are some of the choices you will find:

                                       Table salt 
                                       Cooking salt
                                       Iodised table salt
                                       Iodised cooking salt
                                       Sea salt flakes
                                       Iodised sea salt flakes
                                       Iodised sea salt
                                       Natural rock salt.

Is your head spinning yet?

In my quartet of local of supermarkets I found five different suppliers; an Australian company which has both local and imported salt, the supermarkets with their own house brands and a salt which is packed in South Africa from local and  imported ingredients.The latter is the cheapest in its line.

And then there is SAXA. In the mid 1960s Salpak, a joint venture between Cerebos and Cheetham Salt saw the beginning of SAXA and Cerebos salt manufacturing in Australia. Many of the different types of salt listed above are on the shelf under the SAXA brand. Each SAXA package or container was clearly marked with the logo "from the seas of Australia" which makes it eligible for the Ausfood list.

My choice of salt for the Ausfood cupboard is Kooka, another Australian salt from the seas of Australia. As well, there are other more specialised types of Australian salt but here I am dealing with the common or sea shore variety found on almost all supermarket shelves and available to everyone.

 Now the salt shaker/grinder/cellar has been filled, we will move on the other half of the condiment pair, the pepper shaker/grinder/pot.