No element in cooking is more universally used or miss understood in the world's kitchens.  

Not all salts are equal. So, what's in salt? First, salt is Sodium Chloride. Most salts contain anti-caking compounds added, such as: Calcium Silicate, Dextrose. Sodium Carbonate, Potassium Iodide and Yellow Prussiate of Soda.

There are two basic types of salt. First. there is salt that has been mined from vast underground salt deposits. These salt deposits began forming millions of years ago. When the seas began to recede and evaporate, the extra salty seawater collected in cracks in the earth's surface. The prehistoric oceans totally evaporated and the pressure of the earth continents shifted and changed. The salt deposits compressed over several hundred million years to form great deposits underground in Europe and America.

The second method is to gather salt crystals after manual or solar evaporation of sea or marsh salt water. This method is thousands of years old. There are many drawings and writings which depict and explain how to dry salt in a pot over an open fire. The seawater is boiled down in a pot until salt crystals form. Then. the pot is refilled and cooked until the seawater has evaporated. This process continues until a fair amount of salt can be gathered from the pot and the process begins again. This process has been refined by modern desalinization systems which mechanically evaporate pre-filtered seawater to produce a fine, pure sea salt. and also provides fresh water.