How did salt and pepper become the world’s most popular spices?
In: Economics
It’s called ethnocentrism
And your question is a good example of it
Black pepper is a predominantly western, aka white people, spice due to the climate it grows in.
Most people aren’t white. Therefore black pepper isn’t one of the most popular slices in the world.
Salt is a mineral required to live and we are evolved to seek out salt
Salt isn’t easy to get in food with the exception of blood.
So we find salt in nature and add it to food.
Additionally salt is a very good preservative. So we use it a lot to keep food fresh.
Those 2 things combined make it popular. Because if you don’t eat it you die.
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source: Wikipedia
I read a booked called Salt: A world History and I recommend it. You get a better appreciation for just how big a role salt played in human development, basically facilitating discovery of new worlds.
Even the word salt is laced with meaning – coming from the Latin ‘sal’. Roman soldiers were paid in salt sometimes, which is where we get the word ‘salary’. They used it with vegetables and oil which is where we get ‘salad’.
Fast forward to France and new brides were often showered with salt and grooms would put it in their pockets to increase fertility – which is where the word salacious comes from.
I could be completely mistaken, but it was basically just the personal chefs of some French king in the 1700s used it a bunch and the king loved it, so then everyone in France loved it. Then I think the French kinda spearheaded the modern culinary movement. Writing recipes, techniques, philosophy behind foods, experimenting a bunch, etc. etc. etc. I honestly can’t remember why I think this is true but maybe I can find an article.
Edit: I found an article.
https://gizmodo.com/how-salt-and-pepper-became-the-yin-and-yang-of-condimen-1258049326
Never used black pepper when I grew up in Asia. I don’t think i saw them in shops, but they probably were.
Salt on the other hand was common. Salt not only add flavour to most foods, it can and is used to preserve food for a long period of time.
I don’t know about pepper, that might be more of a cultural thing, but we literally evolved to crave salt. Because our bodies need salt to function, tastebuds evolved to identify salty foods and give off a ”great taste”-response to reward you for eating it. Many cultures use different vehicles to make food salty (soy sauce, fish sauce, cheese etc) but the point of all of those is to make other food more salty.
This is mostly the case for Europe/the west.
Salt becuse it was vital for preservation of meats and vegetables. Especially in countrys with harsher winters. See; The cultural foods of scandinavia for example.
Pepper became popular as a way to cover the flavour of spoiled meat. Which was highly significant for the maritime powers of Europe.
Both Salt and Pepper have remained as Stables, not only through the cultural tradition. But also becuse they are abel to enhance other flavours. Hence why they are still heavily incorporated in modern cuisine.
Salt has always been vital for life. If you look at early hunter gatherer societies, they often spent time where salt is, presumably because a diet that lacks it is deadly. Salt remained absolutely crucial to human civisation, which is presumably the reason why it’s associated with value (‘salary’, being ‘worth your salt’) later on.
Are they the most popular spices though? In Asia you would be much more likely to find soy sauce / chili oil / vinegar on a restaurants table than salt and pepper.
Your body requires salt to keep certain functions of cells working, it was also heavily used for food preservation.
Pepper was said to have been paired to salt by Louis the 14th who was a big fan of the spice, in addition to its worth as a status symbol as it was quite expensive.
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