Embedded Files
Why is SALT an experiment? Because Gersvinda questions assumptions ;)
Experiment #SeawaterFermenting
So, first, WHY are we doing this experiment? Well, Gersvinda is always out of town for Culinary Symposium, and so she hadn’t had a chance to take Ref’s classes, but he taught them at Collegium, and being her, she instantly started on her usual deep critical thinking analysis. The thing she latched onto THIS time is SALT.
There were four sources of salt in a pre-modern context: mining solid salt, burning salt laded plants, or evaporating salt from ocean or spring water (Alexander 1982, Stöllner 2003, Harding 2014). Salt was deeply important to premodern societies, bringing power and money to those who produced it, and being traded long distances hundred of years BCE in Europe (Harding 2013, Alexander 1982, Fawn et al. 1990). 500 BCE, burials close to salt mining areas already show rich artifacts from distant places (Boenke 2005). Salt was expensive for several reasons, the amount of labor needed to make solid salt from ocean water (or springs) or to mine it, being one of them (Harding 2014). The Romans built extensive salt works across Europe (eg. Farrar 1975, Grossi et al. 2015, Curras 2017, Brion 2010, Shotter 2005 etc). Near the ocean in warm and dry climates, the preferred method of salt extraction was by evaporation of sea water, often in large saltworks built for this purpose (Alexander 1982, Harding 2014). Further north, briquetage was the most common method: boiling sea water down in earthenware vessels made for the task (eg. Przybyla 2015, Olivier and Kovacik 2006, Riehm 1961, Leech 1977, etc.). Though no records from the Viking Age exist, in the 16th century, salt was ¼ of all imports to Sweden, and there was a thriving salt trade in France by the 9th century (Hildebrand 1954, Gullbekk 2014).
So, salt was expensive, needed for food preservation, cost a lot of labor and fuel, and was traded widely. We would then assume that Viking Age Scandinavian households had limited amount of it, used it sparingly, and spent a lot of money on it.
All of those statements are making an assumption. They are looking only a SOLID salt. Many culinary and food preservation uses of salt start with “dissolve salt in water”. What if the salt was already in water? For example, in the ocean? Many Viking Age towns and trading centers were located near water, and farms were often not far from the sea (Johansen 1982). Viking Age people had sledges and wagons and draft animals, so what if they were getting free salt WATER and bringing it home, instead of paying for solid salt? YES, there were plenty of towns and farms not directly on the ocean, but we are perfectly calm about the humans moving around to the ocean, why not a few barrels of sea water?
The next step was to determine how salty the sea is…yes, of course that is easy to look up! And it turns out that the sea is just about as salty as the liquid we use for fermenting vegetables (Grupe et al. 2009, Christensen 2004, Katz 2012, https://www.cresis.ku.edu/sites/default/files/Education/K-12/IceIceBaby/3.6-IIB_lesson.pdf). Very handy, that! So, off we went to try using sea-water in cooking and fermenting! I live about an hour’s drive from the ocean and had an afternoon open, so I drove to the beach on a windy winter day. I brought with a selection of empty (plastic) containers, and a (plastic) pail. I wore my wading boots, but it turns out that isn’t very effective and I got quite wet. It also turns out that 8 gallons of water is heavy, especially when the tide is WAAAAAAY out and so I got in a good workout getting it all back to the car. Now, for food safety reasons, you REALLY need to boil sea water. My procedure was 20 minutes minimum, at a full rolling boil, with the lid on.
Figure 1. Five gallons of sea water, a plastic pail, a rope, and a funnel.
Figure 2. The tide, out...FAR! A long hike, with many gallons.
We used the salt water in both cooking and food preservation. For the food preservations part of this experiment, we made a variety of brine fermented vegetables (no meat this time, see side box on meat). For each of the following, we washed the vegetables, chopped or sliced them fairly small, and placed them into a sterilized glass jar (quart size canning jar). Each jar was then filled (1/2 inch headspace) with brine. A few teaspoons of starter was added to each jar (filtered yogurt whey). On top of each jar, we placed a plastic lid with a large hole drilled in it, with a rubber stopper and airlock. The airlocks were filled with water. The brine was seawater which had been boiled, nothing else. See Table 1 for flavor combinations used this time, and if each tasted good.
Table 1. Winter 2017/2018 vegetable fermenting experiment flavors and notes.
Why did everything get yeast? Because it is COLD at my house in the winter, so I put the fermenting next to my radiator, along with our open-vat, bread yeast started, beer experiment. They traded, but a little toooo much!
Okay, moving on to the cooking experiments. Gersvinda was in charge of those this time.
She boiled meatballs in the seawater, which makes for a most delicious soup. However, it was SALTY, so she diluted it with an equal amount of fresh water. We ate the meatballs with skyrr and mustard. Gersvinda diluted the seawater soup with three times as much fresh, and boiled oat groats in it.
Conclusions.
Seawater is amazing for fermenting vegetables. Seawater makes delicious broth-base, and is excellent for cooking with. We have LOTS of other things to investigate (whispers…ham), but so far, it’s easy to use and totally a viable option.
Literature Cited.
Alexander, J. (1982). The prehistoric salt trade in Europe. Nature, 300(5893), 577.
Boenke, N. (2005). Organic resources at the iron age dürrnberg salt‐mine (Hallein, Austria)—long‐distance trade or local sources?. Archaeometry, 47(2), 471-483.
Brión, A. T. (2010). Wild fruits, domesticated fruits. Archeobotanical remains in Roman saltworks at O Areal, Vigo (Galicia, Spain). Des hommes et des plantes. Exploitation du milieu et gestion des ressources végétales de la préhistoire à nos jours. XXXe rencontres internationales d’archéologie et d’histoire d’Antibes Sous. Antibes: Éditions APDCA, 199-207.
Christensen, J. T., Cedhagen, T., & Hylleberg, J. (2004). Late-Holocene salinity changes in Limfjorden, Denmark. Sarsia: North Atlantic Marine Science, 89(6), 379-387.
Currás, B. X. (2017). The salinae of O Areal (Vigo) and Roman salt production in NW Iberia. Journal of Roman Archaeology, 30, 325-349.
Farrar, R. A. H. (1975). Prehistoric and Roman saltworks in Dorset. KA De Brisay, & KA Evans (eds), 14-20.
Fawn, A. J., Evans, K. A., McMaster, I., & Davies, G. M. R. (1990). The Red Hills of Essex, Salt Making in Antiquity. Colchester: Colchester Archaeological Group.
Grossi, M. C., Sivilli, S., Arnoldus-Huyzendveld, A., Facciolo, A., Rinaldi, M. L., Ruggeri, D., & Morelli, C. (2015). A complex relationship between human and natural landscape: a multidisciplinary approach to the study of the ancient saltworks in ‘Le Vignole-Interporto’(Maccarese, Fiumicino–Rome). Archaeology of Salt. Approaching an invisible past, 83-101.
Grupe, G., Heinrich, D., & Peters, J. (2009). A brackish water aquatic foodweb: trophic levels and salinity gradients in the Schlei fjord, Northern Germany, in Viking and medieval times. Journal of Archaeological Science, 36(10), 2125-2144.
Gullbekk, S. H. (2014). Vestfold: a monetary perspective on the Viking Age. Early medieval monetary history. Studies in memory of Mark Blackburn, 331-48.
Harding, A. (2013). Salt in prehistoric Europe. Sidestone Press.
Hildebrand, P. K. G. (1954). Salt and cloth in Swedish economic history. Scandinavian Economic History Review, 2(2), 74-102.
Johansen, O. S. (1982). Viking Age farms: Estimating the number and population size. A case study from Vestvåg⊘ y, North Norway. Norwegian Archaeological Review, 15(1), 45-69.
Katz, S. E. (2012). The art of fermentation: an in-depth exploration of essential concepts and processes from around the world. Chelsea green publishing.
Katz, S. E. (2016). Wild fermentation: The flavor, nutrition, and craft of live-culture foods. Chelsea Green Publishing.
Lane, T., & Morris, E. L. (Eds.). (2001). A Millennium of Saltmaking: prehistoric and Romano-British salt production in the Fenland. Heritage Trust of Lincolnshire.
Leech, R. H. (1977). Late Iron Age and Romano-British briquetage sites at quarrylands Lane, Badgworth. Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, 121, 89-96.
Olivier, L., & Kovacik, J. (2006). The ‘Briquetage de la Seille’(Lorraine, France): proto-industrial salt production in the European Iron Age. Antiquity, 80(309), 558-566.
Przybyła, M. M. (2015). New materials for the recognition of salt production in the Neolithic, bronze and the early Iron Age in western lesser Poland. A case study of site no. 15 in Kraków-Bieżanów. In the context of other archaeological sites in this region. Acta Archaeologica Carpathica.
Riehm, K. (1961). Prehistoric salt-boiling. Antiquity, 35(139), 181-191.
Shotter, D., 2005. Salt Proprietors in Cheshire. Realities and Possibilities, in: Nevell, M., Fielding, A.P. (eds.) Brine in Britannia: Recent Archaeological Work on the Roman Salt Industry in Cheshire, Archaeology North West, 7(17), 41—47.
Stöllner, T., Aspöck, H., Boenke, N., Dobiat, C., Gawlick, H. J., Groenman-van Waateringe, W., ... & Löcker, K. (2003). The economy of Dürrnberg-bei-Hallein: An Iron Age salt-mining centre in the Austrian Alps. The Antiquaries Journal, 83, 123-194.
Meatball recipe
Finely chopped or ground pork, combined with seasonings to taste. In this case, that means fine chopped onions, and prepared mustard (grind seeds, mix with water). Add an egg and mix well (you can also add a little flour, not required). Form into small meatballs (little over an inch), and drop into boiling seawater for 5-10 minutes. Eat warm, or cold.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse