How did salt and pepper become the world’s most popular spices?
In: Economics
TLDR: It was mostly because wealthy people decided it was fashionable about a hundred years ago. But salt has literally always been a table staple.
This is a strange one.
The first bit is that salt is and always has been the king of condiments. As far back as the Mesopotamians, it’s been *the thing* to have on the table. We don’t think of it that way now, but salt used to be more precious (by far) than gold. An Xbox-sized block of salt could have purchased *you* for a solid chunk of history. Right up until the 17th century, salt was placed in a small dish in front of the man of the house, and he would dish it out to people at his discretion.
As salt became more accessible, then we see the integration of salt into the cruet set.
Now, a cruet is a lovely little bit of tradition that no properly-dressed table would ever have been without. It contained the bare essential condiments: salt, pepper, vinegar, olive oil, and… a mystery condiment that has not been identified. Hopefully some really boring person journaled that they scolded their servant for not filling the ___ condiment properly, or something, and that journal will one day be discovered and the mystery will be solved. Until that day, it’s lost to history.
Anyway. These were the accessory condiments to any meal, and they really do cover a lot of bases. This group makes sense as a broad range of staple condiments to cover a variety of needs.
The wealthy began this crazy of condiments on the table and the middle class soon followed. Before you knew it, everyone who could afford it had the full set. That was not a large percentage of the population just yet.
Then came the Trimming Down era. Suddenly, it was not popular to have all that fuss and bother. Tables became sleek and less fancy. People wanted simpler meals with less steps involved (not least because servants were now Not Really A Thing.)
And the cruet died a rather sudden, dramatic death. Instead, the two powders – salt and pepper – were lifted off of it and placed on the table. The cruet was chucked out with all the other old frumpery, and the liquids were left in the (brand new) refrigerator or brought out only on request.
And that’s how we ended up with only salt and pepper on our tables as the staple two.
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