I did not like this book (1/5 stars). I enjoy reading about history, but I learned reading about just salt was incredibly boring. I fell asleep a countless number of times, so if you're having trouble falling asleep... maybe this is worth a read.

It seems Kurlansky is trying to show all the different uses of salt and how it evolved through time. Sure, there are many uses I didn't know of, but all in all, not 400+ pages worth. Also, Kurlansky writes about the importance of salt and its impact on the world we live in today. There is no doubt salt was super important, but the story was repetitive. Most of the chapters described the world region, the process they used to create salt, and the type of food they salted.

My favorite part of the book was when Kurlansky wrote about the sinkholes caused by too much brine extraction in England. There are a few other good parts of the book, but I would not recommend reading this unless you are really interested in salt.

In conclusion, I learned a lot about salt, but felt like the chapters read the same. I will most likely never reread this book.

Было бы замечательно как сборник занимательных фактов, но книга пытается показать даже наверное не историю соли как, гм, явления, а мировую историю — через призму соли как определяющего фактора во многих поворотных моментах, и для этого коммитмента не хватает ни ей, ни мне.

This was the first so-called "commodity history" that I've read, and I'm sorry to say it might have turned me completely off the damn things. I'm not entirely sure why this book is so popular and so widely read, since it strikes me as simply a series of stories by Mark Kurlansky that quickly settle into the same basic mantra, which is: 1) Here is this culture; 2) Like the twenty other cultures I have just introduced to you, salt was also important to this culture; 3) These are the ways they gathered salt; 4) Here is a random sprinkling of recipes involving salt. Done. Move on to next story.

The different stories are not even interwoven, so that halfway through the book I still didn't really know what Kurlansky's point is, unless to underscore his initial point that all animals need salt to live. But I already knew this before I cracked open the book, and I don't think Kurlansky's additional 450 pages underscoring the subject really added anything useful to my life.

Moreover, how can this guy write one book about how Cod changed the world (aptly titled Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World), and then turn right around and write another about how salt changed the world? One wonders if his gimmick isn't getting a bit old. And in any case, can't you name pretty much anything out there and weave a story about how it "changed" the world? Shoelaces, rubber, pencils, ziplock bags . . .

The one thing about the book that was interesting was how it printed all these old school recipes involving salt, salting and brining. The recipes are incredible because of the sheer amount of labor and preparation that they describe. It's both fascinating and horrifying. No wonder a woman's place used to be in the kitchen, if cooking and eating took so damn long.

Here is one of the simpler recipes, this one for salted cucumbers:

SOLENYE OGURTSY (SALTED CUCUMBER)

Dry out very clean river sand and pass it through a fine sieve. Spread a layer of this sand, the thickness of your palm, on the bottom of a barrel. Add a layer of clean black currant leaves, dill, and horseradish cut into pieces, followed by a layer of cucumbers. Cover the cucumbers with another layer of leaves, dill, and horseradish, topped with a layer of sand. Continue in this manner until the barrel is full. The last layer over the cucumbers must be currant leaves, with sand on the very top. Prepare the brine as follows: For one pail of water, use one and a half pounds of salt. Bring to a boil, cool, and cover the cucumbers completely with the brine. Replenish the brine as it evaporates. Before any kind of salting, cucumbers must be soaked for 12-15 hours in ice water. --Elena Molokhovets, A Gift to Young Housewives

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ADDENDUM I:

Okay, I am about three quarters through the book now (I was probably only about halfway through when I wrote the first portion of this review) and it's getting a lot better. Maybe it was just the very long Part II about salting cadavers and the preservation of fish that got me so down on the book before I'd even finished the damn thing. I was initially tempted to quit and put the book down, but I have done that so rarely with books that I decided to just push on, and thankfully the arc of the story shifted and started getting a lot better.


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ADDENDUM II:

Okay, the book got a lot better towards the end. It's still not a book that I would read again with any relish or recommend to anyone who is not already gung-ho about commodity histories, but I don't feel like I am wasting my eyes and mental energy with it anymore. Two stars!

I have tried to digest this book called Salt, especially as a food reviewer, and a history buff in training, but I think I will throw it over my left shoulder as I can't get past the taste of the endless first chapter on ancient Asian governments.

The book is pretty well written and full of great pictures and interesting salty tid-bits, but maybe its a bit too ambitious to try to tell the history of the world through a pure salt perspective?!

The value of the mineral, and the elaborate way it was mined in ancient times, is truly fascinating, but Kurlansky can go four-plus bland pages of minutia of Asian emperor names, follies, and dates of reign, without even a dash of the word SALT!!!

Some treats for you: Salt is the only rock we eat! Salt is a necessary component to functioning, makes ice cream freeze, removes rust, makes things taste good, seals cracks, removes spots on coals, preserves food, puts out grease fires, treats sore throats, and ear aches. The average adult human being has about three or four salt shaker in her body! My friend Clare actually actually snacks on sea salt because she finds it satisfies her craving without having to eat heavy junk foods. A substance so valuable, salt served as money, influenced trade routes, inspired wars. Without taking away the power of salt, the same could also be said about different foods, including beer, which I actually enjoyed reading the history of. (See my Fermenting Revolution review)

On the other hand, my friend, who can stomach more hardcore history than I, enjoyed me reading to him aloud from Salt. Also, my uncle gives many kudos to the book Cod by the same author--

Someday I may get a craving to explore some of these choice jems of chapters, like maybe Nordic salt dreams (which includes recipes), and American salt wars, but for now I am in search of food writing with better narrative flow--