252. The mystery of salt

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Today I cooked a stew, but, distracted as I was, thinking of my next Twitteretter, I forgot to add salt. It is amazing the difference it makes. How can such a simple thing have such impact on flavour. Life has many mysteries, but one that really fascinates me is who, when, why and especially how did someone come up with the idea of adding salt to food? This seems like an extremely unlikely coincidence, the strangest serendipity. There is no clue, until you add the salt, that it will have such an enhancing effect, so how does it happen in the first place? I guess the key to the mystery is in the Law of Large Numbers. So many meals have been consumed over humanity’s history that possibly every single potential condiment has been added at some point. Some enhanced the flavour, some killed the diner. Trial and error, over such a large experiment, resulted in salt becoming a staple condiment, the champion of taste against insipidness. I wonder what amazing condiment we have not tried yet? 

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Location: Hereford, UK

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