What are the origins of salt and pepper

A.� They both have�long individual histories, but the significance of their presentation together on�dining�tables probably�goes�back to feudal times. It was then that they were first�set out in a massive ornament dividing a�wealthy host and his honoured guests�from the lower orders at the other end of the table. It's from this positioning of the salt cellar, which also had a container for ground pepper,� that we�derive the snobbish expression� "below the salt".

In earlier times salt on its own -�an important food substance with a�very basic taste, detected�by�special receptors in the mouth - was traditionally used for preserving food as well as enhancing�its flavour.

Pepper - a pungent,�aromatic spice - stimulates the appetite and makes the digestive juices flow.

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Q.� How did people add it to their food then

A.���The medieval salt cellar was,�first and foremost, a symbolic table decoration rather than a source of supply during the meal. Each diner would have had a quantity of salt beside them in a smaller trencher. Salt was taken with a clean knife, as it was considered vulgar to user your�fingers or�to dip morsels of food into the trenchers.

Gold, silver and precious stones adorned "the salts". There�are several decorated cellars still on display among the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London.

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Q.� When did pepper become popular

A.� While salt was used by those both above and below the salt, pepper was exclusive to those above it. It was an exotic and treasured spice, the fruit of a vine which grew wild in the hinterland of southern India, and which the Romans exchanged for gold. By 400AD the custom of adding pepper to food had spread throughout Roman provinces and beyond. In Britain too, pepper began to be added to dishes. In Roman cookery, pepper with everything was the rule. It was added to sauces, stuffings and sausages and was commonly sprinkled on cooked dishes just before serving. It was regarded as neither sweet nor savoury, so it was also used on desserts. A thick egg custard got a dusting of pepper. Even�today strawberries are regularly drenched in pepper, and banana dusted with freshly ground black pepper is a popular summer pud.

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Q.� Where are the most famous salt cellars

A.� Queen Elizabeth's great salt cellar stands nearly a foot high. It has a shallow pan at the top, for salt, which is covered in a golden canopy. Benvenuto Cellini made an elaborate gold salt cellar between 1539 and 1543. Now in Vienna, it is surmounted by two reclining figures, Neptune and Tellus, representing the sea and the earth.

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Q.� Where does table salt come from

A.� Table salt comes from the mineral halite. Halite forms where sea water dries at the shore. Underground deposits of halite are the remains of ancient salt lakes. Pure salt has no colour, but impurities in halite give it a pink colour. Pepper comes from the dried berries of certain plants, and is used whole or ground into powder.

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by Katharine MacColl