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Sea Salt

In ancient times, salt was already indispensable for seasoning. At first it was evidently less often used just to flavor food, but more as a way of preserving fish and meat - there are countless sources containing references praising salted tuna fish. Salt was also important in the production of a strong, spicy fish sauce (igaros, Roman igarum), which formed part of many dishes in which you would not expect to find it today. Various kinds of fish and fish waster were mixed with salt and fermented in the sun in large earthenware pots for three or four months, while being constantly stirred. After being strained, flavored with herbs, and

Good sea salt should not be bleached and
should feel slightly moist. The biggest salt
suppliers get their salt from central Greece.

transferred to more manageable clay jars, igaros would keep for a relatively long time. You have to imagine a product something like the Asian fish sauce.

It is unnecessary to stress the importance of salt in modern Greek cooking But salt production is inextricably linked to one of the unforgettable names in Greek history, which will never lose its importance for Greek national feeling. The modern day salt center for the country lies very close to the town of Missolonghi, which is situated on the Gulf of Patras in the southwest of central Greece and was a center of Greek resistance at the beginning of the 19th century. The major Greek salt companies are located here. As in the other salt producing regions of the world, salt is produced by channeling seawater into big, shallow evaporating pans, in which the first pollutants can settle to the bottom, and the salt content of the water can be increased by repeatedly letting new sweater. These pans feed the salt gardens, where the water finally evaporates in the sun until the crystallized salt remains. About one third of the world demand for salt is produced from the sea in Greece and France. Unlike tock salt, sea salt contains very small amounts of additional minerals such as bromine or iodine. The latter regulates the metabolism and the functioning of the thyroid gland, so sea salt can prevent iodine deficiency and the symptoms connected with it. high quality sea salt is sold unrefined, unbleached and without anti-caking agents. It is pale gray and lumpy.

The salt pans of Missolonghi are also home to a huge variety of birds. Avocets, great white herons, and stilts are as much at home here as calandra, crested, and short toed larks. There are plenty of fish here for them.

excerpts from: "Culinaria Greece"