“Table sans sel, bouch sans salive” – A table without salt is like a mouth without Saliva
Salt has been harvested on the Guerande Peninsula since the iron age.
In 945 monks from the Batz Priory started using their studies of the sun, winds, and tides to create a saltworks that is still in use to this day
In 1343 King Phillippe VI de Valois, made the salt trade a state monopoly and instituted the Pays de Grandes Gabelles. The Gabelle not only regulated salt taxes, it required everyone over the age of 8 to purchase a set amount of salt from the state monopoly for personal use NOT food preservation.
Salt was the top choice for food preservation and French cheese makers trying to preserve milk with it, combined with variations in climate, herds, and local cultural traditions led to over 265 varieties of cheese in France!
According to one legend a hunter wounded a wild boar driving it into the marsh at Bearn. By the time the hunter found it, it was already preserved in the salty brine. This led to the creation of ham.
Le Menagier de Paris Contains a recipe to make your salt White!
Redaction:
1 qt coarse salt ( Sel Gris)
3 qt water
Dissolve the salt into the water over a low heat then strain through a fine cloth or sieve and return to the heat allowing it to boil down completely until you see dry bubbles. Spread on a cloth in the sun to finish drying.
- The French Crown Attached so much importance to the commercial production of salted anchovies in Collioure that the entire town was exempted from salt taxes!