> Skip to content
  • Published: 30 September 2011
  • ISBN: 9781448113200
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 496

Salt




'Salt is the fascinating, indispensable history of an indispensable ingredient. It's a must-have book for any serious cook or foodie' Anthony Bourdain

Homer called it a divine substance. Plato described it as especially dear to the gods. As Mark Kurlansky so brilliantly relates here, salt has shaped civilisation from the beginning, and its story is a glittering, often surprising part of the history of mankind. Wars have been fought over salt and, while salt taxes secured empires across Europe and Asia, they have also inspired revolution - Gandhi's salt march in 1930 began the overthrow of British rule in India.

From the rural Sichuan province where the last home-made soya sauce is produced to the Cheshire brine springs that supplied salt around the globe, Mark Kurlansky has produced a kaleidoscope of world history, a multi-layered masterpiece that blends political, commercial, scientific, religious and culinary records into a rich and memorable tale.

  • Published: 30 September 2011
  • ISBN: 9781448113200
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 496

About the author

Mark Kurlansky

Mark Kurlansky is the bestselling author of several bestselling nonfiction titles including Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World (winner of the Glenfiddich Best Food Book Award), The Basque History of the World, Salt: A World History, 1968: The Year that Rocked the World, a short story collection The White Man in the Tree and a novel, Boogaloo on 2nd Avenue.

Also by Mark Kurlansky

See all

Praise for Salt

A rich stew about every salt-influenced concoction and creation, from the first sausages and cured hams and fish sauces to the invention of parmesan, tomato ketchup and Tabasco sauce

Financial Times

An entertainingly anecdotal and lovingly partisan history.

Independent

Crisply and elegantly written - piques the appetite and sharpens the senses

Sunday Telegraph

Refreshing and invigorating, full of fascinating fact

Independent on Sunday

This is an extraordinary little book, unputdownable, written in the most lyrical, flowing style which paints vivid pictures and, at the same time, punches into place hard facts that stop you dead in your tracks. A compulsive read

Sir Roy Strong, Express on Sunday