Experiments 5-7
Experiments 5-7
I was continuing to delve into research even as I started experimenting. By this point in my research I had discovered the term Briquetage which helped me find additional archeological articles with help from friends. The Red Hills of Essex was particularly enlightening as it identified a few new factors in the process. The sea water was boiled down into a brine before being added to the clay pots for a final boil, and the pots were elevated rather than in direct contact with the heat. This was accomplished using pedestals which had been tempered to survive the direct heat of the fire and Firebars which were not tempered and seem to have been intended to act as a grate to hold the clay pots above the fire. While I do not have the skills or resources to recreate this kind of earthen pit fire I did attempt to get as close as I could. With some help I was able to locate a small inexpensive fire pit with a grate, that while metal would allow me to simulate this raised cooking for my next three experiments. I was able to conduct this experiment with the generous help of a friend lending me their back yard ( and a few blankets as it got rather chilly).
The brine used for this section is from the same original water harvest and was concentrated by 50% before I began
Experiment 5 - Single Direct Boil over an open fire
For this experiment I replicated experiment 2 but with two minor changes.
1) I used the more indirect heat of the fire with the grill to raise it above the fire rather than the clay being in direct contact with the heat. As this was a lower heat than on my stove I expected more water to seep through the terra cotta and a thicker film on the outside. I was pleasantly surprised that this was not the case and far less of the salt seems to have been lost through the clay.
2) I used the more concentrated salt brine, which I expected would leave a larger sample of salt behind. In this I was correct, but also the lower heat allowed for slightly larger salt crystals to form .
Experiment 6 Repeated Direct Boil over an open fire - Partial Fill
For this experiment I repeated the steps in attempt 4 however as I wanted to do a direct comparison of the amount of salt captured in experiment 5 I filled the cup 1/3 full three times.
As with experiment 5, I used salt brine and the indirect heat which resulted in a far slower evaporation but with less loss through the terra cotta.
This method was very promising as the salt layer seemed denser than the single boil but also very time consuming.
Experiment 7 Single Direct Boil over an open fire - Water Soaked Terra Cotta 1/2 full
I cannot take credit for this experiment as it was a suggestion by one of the people observing my process. Due to its nature and the lack of writing we have about this method of salt making there is no way to know if this would have been used however it is plausible given the simple steps and I felt it was worth examining.
For this experiment we pre soaked the pot in fresh water for approximately 2 hours to allow saturation of the clay. This was a test to see if we could reduce the amount of salt seepage through the clay. Given how slowly the other two pots were evaporating I only filled to the halfway point with brine and adding it to the fire grill.
I was happy to find that this did significantly reduce the amount of salt soaking through the jar but did not seem to impact the size of the salt crystals. Because it was put on the fire later than the other two vessels, I was unable to determine how it impacted processing time