Salt

[jason taylor]

There was a North-South trail on the Sahara where the interior had a gold mine, the Northerners had the coast and thus there was a classic double premium and it was possible to make a killing at both ends.

[Ashtagon]

Originally Posted by DanHoward

Salt was expensive. The phrase "not worth its salt" came around because only the best quality meat was worth the expense of preserving in salt.

My understanding is that salt was one of the few ways of preserving meat for any decent length of time. Best-quality meat would be eaten fresh, not salted away for later, as salting it would reduce the quality.

[Stripe]

Originally Posted by Lameth

Is there a better chart for spices also? My players are getting close to a bizarre they will come in contact with more exotic spices

Low-Tech has you covered. Herbs and spices, perfumes and cosmetics, medicines, dyes, textiles . . . I mean, it's got so much "stuff." I'd give page numbers, but it's so chalk full of a wide variety you just need to browse the whole book. It's a trove. However, the Dungeon Fantasy 8: Treasure Tables you mentioned is a related/compatible book and has much of it, though.

[DanHoward]

Originally Posted by Ashtagon

My understanding is that salt was one of the few ways of preserving meat for any decent length of time. Best-quality meat would be eaten fresh, not salted away for later, as salting it would reduce the quality.

You need good quality meat with low fat content for salt preservation. The gristly fatty cuts had to be eaten immediately. Any meat that didn't meet a minimum standard was "not worth its salt".

[Flyndaran]

I've always preferred the gristly fatty bits. I do sometimes drink chicken fat, so maybe I'm not the norm. Ha.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by DanHoward

You need good quality meat with low fat content for salt preservation. The gristly fatty cuts had to be eaten immediately. Any meat that didn't meet a minimum standard was "not worth its salt".

Refrigeration is so much the be-all-end-all of food preservation today that many people tend to forget other preservation methods ever existed. That leads to a common misconception that salt, pepper, and/or other spices were primarily used to cover the flavor of questionable meat.

[Blind Mapmaker]

The $15/ounce number probably comes from the fact that throwing salt at zombies gives +1 to Turn Zombie and True Faith rolls. Presumably you don't want that to be a constant free bonus. I would change the price to the $25/lb given by Turhan's Bey Company and state explicitly that throwing the salt takes an extra second even if you have it in your hand already - more if you have to fish it out of your pockets. That solves the free bonus and doesn't create any more problems along the way.

And thanks for making me look at the table, Lameth. This way I found out that Red Salt and Black Salt are quite fascinating too!

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by RyanW

That leads to a common misconception that salt, pepper, and/or other spices were primarily used to cover the flavor of questionable meat.

If you think about it a little, it's obviously not true for the spices - enough spices to make a difference would cost more than a live animal.

[Anaraxes]

The problem isn't the live animal so much as feeding the live animal. You slaughter most of the herd in the fall, and salt the meat to preserve it, because it's quite a lot of work to be able to feed those animals through the winter; you need (literally) tons of hay if they can't graze in a pasture. So you keep breeding stock through the winter, and grow the herd again next spring, then slaughter the excess in the fall, because that's easier than growing and cutting a lot of hay while also tending your animals. But that pattern creates a need to preserve a lot more meat than you can eat on the spot (no matter how much tastier it might be had you eaten it fresh).

Salting fish isn't a matter of feeding schools, but just the fact that there's voyage time to sail to the fishing grounds and that you come back with a (literal) boatload of fish, again more than anyone can eat fresh. Winter weather is also worse, so you'd rather not go out then just to get fresh fish every day.

Refrigeration and rapid transport over long distances make a big difference in our consumption habits. Salt just makes your popcorn taste better, rather than being your key to survival until next year, not to mention a vital strategic military asset.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by DanHoward

You need good quality meat with low fat content for salt preservation. The gristly fatty cuts had to be eaten immediately. Any meat that didn't meet a minimum standard was "not worth its salt".

Pretty sure that high-fat pig fat is traditionally preserved with salt. Yep.