Because of its preservative qualities, salt was associated with purification and used in all manner of purification rituals. In their sacrifices to the gods, the ancient Greeks burned salt and flesh. Later on the Scottish entertained a tradition of putting salt on a corpse's chest. Even now Catholic priests add salt to water before blessing it to create Holy Water.
Through the years salt has been used to combat germs of various kinds. Jewish babies were rubbed with salt at birth as a disinfectant. People have "cured" pork, fish and other meats in salt to preserve them against bacterial decay and probably at one time or another you have gargled with a salt water solution as an antibiotic or on the advise of a Dentist. Perhaps you have cut yourself and have somehow gotten salt into the wound. It hurts like crazy and you run around hollering but it does help prevent infection. Even during WWII a medical supply company made a strong antiseptic with the chlorine derived from salt.
An old wives tale relates that spilling salt is, naturally, unlucky. The usual 'cure' is to pick up a pinch in the right hand and throw it over your left shoulder, right in the face of the evil spirit that caused you to spill the salt in the first place. If you unable to use that cure, then another suggests tossing the spilt salt into an open fire. This will burn away any tears that the spilt salt might portend.
Ritual demands that salt should always be the first thing placed on the dinner table when setting it, and the last item to be removed from it as well as there should always be salt within arm's reach of all guests at a table so that they can serve themselves. You should never pass salt to anyone, even if they ask for it, for the warning goes: 'Pass me salt, pass me sorrow'.
A variety of salts exist. There is Table salt, a fine grained salt used in salt shakers found in the home kitchen. Fairly neutral in flavor and dissolving quickly in warm water, it also contains anti caking additives, which keep it flowing nicely even in humid weather, and iodine for health purposes. Kosher salt differs in that it is free of additives. Whether you chose the finely grained or slightly larger, it is most often used by home cooks in canning or meat brines. The lack of additives makes for clearer brines, and does not impart any unwanted additive flavors over long preservations. Sea salt is harvested after piping sea water onto a flat field, allowing the sun to evaporate the water, and collecting the salt that remains. Sea salt is often prized by cooks as it offers are more complex taste as it contains additional fine deposits of other minerals which gives it a varied and complex taste. Around the world, each area from where the salt is harvested, and the mineral properties of the water in that location, affect the flavor and color. Sea salt can come both finely grained or more granular in nature. Rock salt is sold in large crystals, not processed and full of impurities. This salt is normally used as road salt, ice cream machine salt, etc. Epsom salt actually magnesium sulfate, is one of the most versatile household products, with uses ranging from creating at-home spa treatments to soothing achy muscles to helping start or improve gardens. It is easy to use, and readily available in your local pharmacy or grocery store.
If at this point you crave more salty knowledge, the State of Kansas invites you 650' below the surface to tour their Underground Salt Museum and view the world’s oldest living organism, estimated to be about 250 million years old, as part of its newest exhibit featuring the unprecedented discovery of living bacteria found trapped inside a salt crystal.
Kansas Undergound Salt Museum
Sicily has just announced the opening of the world’s first concentrated solar power (CSP) facility that uses molten salt as a heat collection medium.
Epsom Salt uses
