I posted this question in /r/askhistory and got unsatisfactory answers. I hope this is the right place.
By "pre-industrial", I guess I mean medieval and bronze age, mainly. I've always heard about how salt has been used to preserve food (for the winter) for a very long time. When did this practice actually start?
Making salt is labor-intensive, so how did poor farmers get enough of it?
How did subsistence farmers 500-1500 years ago preserve their food, if not with salt? If they used salt, how they procure it? Did they barter or pay for it or produce it themselves (if so, how?)? If they didn't use salt, when did that become a thing?
Hi, there have been heaps of discussion in this sub about salt, so hopefully you'll be able to find your answer here. To get you started, I've rounded up a few threads that you may find interesting..
/u/Flubb on the salt trade in England I live in Derbyshire in Late Antiquity or the early Middle Ages. I need to salt some meat for the coming winter. Where and how do I acquire salt?
/u/AshkenazeeYankee & others on salt mining & trade in Poland/Scandinavia How could a Polish salt miner become rich by getting a handfull of salt each day, while poorer people used salt by the kilo in producing food for the winter?
/u/Lynx_Rufus with an overview of salt production & trade Why was salt so scarce and valuable when it is in the ocean everywhere?
more discussion on salt production I'm given to understand that in the pre-modern world salt was a very valuable commodity. If you lived near a coast line what (if anything) was to stop you just making unlimited salt by boiling sea water?
of possible tangential interest, /u/Reedstilt and /u/Mictlantecuhtli on salt trade in North America Was there a salt trade amongst North American natives? If so, did it circulate through the same trade routes as other goods such as chert, maize and wampum?
When did this practice actually start?
This might be worth x-posting to our sister sub /r/AskAnthropology, since I imagine this reaches far into prehistory
preserve their food, if not with salt?
There are many methods of preservation that don't use salt. Here are a few sample posts; to find more, run searches for "preserve", "refrigeration", etc