Salts of the Earth

Under the blazing sun, seawater evaporated, leaving the formed salt crystals to be raked off from the long, rectangular beds that resembled giant skating rinks of frozen milk. Despite its many varied uses and associations, salt- sodium chloride (NaCl) - is most valued by food lovers for the lively interest it adds to everything we eat, cakes and desserts included, whether presented in disposable paper packets or in a gold, enamel and jeweled vessel such as the 16th-century Benvenuto Cellini saltcellar in Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum.