Making Salt

[QuakerBear]

Is it safe to make your own salt from the sea water round the coast? I'm in Aldershot and the nearest beach is West Wittering. Is it clean enough there?

[Wombat]

Hey QB!

Dunno about your area, but salt is usually made by boiling down or evaporating sea water. The boiling down would eliminate any biological contamination.

Salt made directly from the sea still contains calcium and magnesium salts, referred to as the bittern salts cause they give the salt a bitter flavour. By leaving the salt in woven sacks in a humid environment, the bittern salts pick up water, dissolve and drip out leaving good old sodium chloride! The stuff that drips out (called nigari by the Japanese) can be collected, evaporated and used to coagulate tofu from soy milk.

Nev

[QuakerBear]

Thank you Nev.

I was just wondering, 'cos Ben Kingsley did it so why shouldn't I.

I might research the area to see if there are any sewege outlets near by.

[Wombat]

No worries! Let us know how you get on.

Nev