Salt in the World - Salt in the Food

This article taken from Guide to Salt Varieties by VegKitchen: Salt comes in all colors, shapes and sizes; as well as pure white, salt may be pink, grey, black or green. Salt truly is a rainbow-hued rock. Here’s a guide to many of the salt varieties available.

Fleur de sel

What is it? Fleur de sel, the “flower of the salt,” is the name used for salt that has been raked by hand from salt ponds surrounding certain villages in France, predominately those around Brittany, on the Atlantic coast, and in the Camargue, on the Mediterranean.

It is harvested from May to September, when artisan paludiers patiently wait as the shallow pools of water in the salt ponds evaporate, creating the prized salt crystals. It is a delicate art: excessive movement will cause the “flower” to sink to the bottom, so salt can only be collected when the weather is warm and winds are light. The ponds are the same ones where the coarser sel gris is harvested, but for every 40 kilograms of sel gris produced, only around 1½ kilograms of fleur de sel is harvested. Each day a new layer of salt rises to the top of the pond, crystallizing in delicate flakes that are scooped up by the paludier using a wide, flat board on the end of a long pole. Each day’s harvest comprises one batch of fleur de sel.

Properties: The salt itself is white, although it can acquire a pinkish hue, and has long been prized by chefs and gourmets for its high quality. 

Uses: Light, flaky, and with a pure, slightly mineral taste, fleur de sel is perfect for finishing dishes, either in the kitchen or at the table.

Sea Salt

What is it? Sea salt is the generic term for unrefined or minimally refined salt, usually containing many of the trace minerals found in sea water as it has been naturally evaporated from a living ocean, sea or bay. Some of the more common sources for sea salt are the North Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, particularly in France on the coast of Brittany, although sea salt can be made from the waters of any ocean, large or small.

Properties: Sea salt is typically unrefined, so the minerals it contains may include iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, manganese, zinc and iodine. These contribute to its bright, pure, clean flavor, which many consider carries the tang of the ocean.

Uses: Less delicate —and less expensive—than fleur de sel, sea salt is perhaps the ideal general-purpose salt, suitable for nearly all uses in the kitchen, particularly if you keep both a coarse and a fine-grained variety on hand. Suitable for both seasoning and finishing at the table.

Rock Salt

What is it? The term rock salt applies to any salt that has been mined from salt deposits on or under the ground. This definition may also apply to salt which has been extracted from underground deposits by dissolving it in water, pumping the brine to the surface and then precipitating the liquid back into salt.

Properties: Rock salt comes in a variety of sizes and is generally very cheap. 

Uses: As it is cheap, it can be used for anything that requires salt in large quantities, such as baking anything in a bed of salt.

Table Salt

What is it? Table salt is highly refined salt—usually between 95% and 99% pure sodium chloride—which has been created to a uniform size by mechanical evaporators. It is often iodized, and usually contains an anti-caking agent to allow it to flow freely.

Uses: For much of the twentieth century, most homes had iodized table salt in their kitchen and nothing else. There remains a place for iodized table salt, mainly where it will not be used directly on food—the salting of cooking water, for example—or in baking, where its uniform size makes for accurate measuring (although a fine sea salt is preferable). The strong, sharp taste of table salt means that, given the wealth of alternatives, it should never be used at the table or as a finishing salt.

Grey Salt

What is it? Sel gris, grey salt, usually refers to the grey French sea salt that is hand harvested with wooden rakes in the traditional method. A moist, unrefined sea salt produced along most coastal areas of France, it is typified by a light grey, slightly purple tinge, which comes from the clay found in the salt flats.

Properties: Because it comes from France, sel gris is a little more expensive than local salt, but it is still an ideal all-purpose salt. It is unrefined, so it contains a range of minerals, and the evaporation process leaves it slightly moist, meaning it can be easily handled with your fingers. Learning to judge the amount of salt you are adding by how it feels is an essential skill in cooking, one that professional chefs learn early in their training. 

Uses: For maximum flavor, sprinkle this salt by hand over foods just before serving to draw out the full flavors of the other ingredients. This is a natural compliment to fresh salads and vegetable dishes. An excellent all-round seasoning.

*A cheaper alternative to sel gris is Korean grey salt, which is available at many Asian supermarkets. It is similar in texture, color, and taste, though it will generally be drier than sel gris.

Pink Salt

What is it? Of all the colors that salt comes in, pink is definitely the most popular. Or at least the most common.

The color comes either from the minerals that are bound in with the salt crystals, or from a salt-loving bacteria that produces a red carotenoid pigment, providing a valuable source of beta-carotene. Pink salts come most frequently from inland areas, where deposits have been left by the evaporation of prehistoric seas. Himalayan pink salt, Peruvian pink salt and Australia’s Murray River pink salt are perhaps the three most popular varieties.

Himalayan and the Peruvian salts are mined from pure salt deposits that lie high in the mountains, and they both possess the rich, mineral flavor that is common to pink salt.

Properties: Because they are mined rather than evaporated, the crystals are substantial, and contribute a definite ‘crunch’ to dishes on which they are used. 

Uses: This is a gentle salt with a subtle, crunchy texture. Try with barbecued or highly-spiced food.

Murray River pink salt is sourced from an underground aquifer near Mildura, Victoria, which is pumped to the surface through the mineral-rich soil, absorbing nutrients as it goes. The brine is evaporated first by the sun, then mechanically, producing a uniform flake salt that is now used by chefs around the world.

Uses: Murray River pink salt has a mild flavor without harshness. Justin North, of Becasse, favors the salt for its “beautifully balanced clean finish” and its “delicate crunch.” Good with vegetables such as mushrooms and potatoes.

Expat Foodie; It's Not Just White Stuff

Red, Black and Blue Salt

As we have seen, salt comes in most colors of the rainbow, and from all corners of the globe. Because pure salt is pure white or even translucent, the colors they gain are from natural elements incorporated into the salt crystals as they are produced.

Hawaiian ‘Alaea salt is almost red; these salts take their name from the iron oxide-rich red volcanic clay, called ‘Alaea, which gives them color.

Properties: Harvested on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, which is their only source, these are claimed to have the highest concentration of trace minerals and elements of all salt. 

Uses: Authentic ‘Alaea red clay will cause a fizzing reaction when added to a liquid, and imparts a subtle, mellow flavor to the salt. However, because clay and salt will separate in water, ‘Alaea salt should be mainly used as a finishing salt.

Persian Blue salt harvested from Iran, is a natural rock salt that is mineral rich with a hint of sweetness. It is dotted with blue crystals which are in fact salt crystals that have been highly compressed, causing them to turn blue.

Kala Namak, also known as black salt or sanchal, is an unrefined volcanic table salt with a strong sulphuric flavor. Despite its name, kala namak, which is mined in Central India, is actually light pink in color when ground.

Properties and Uses: It is rich in minerals and most often used to flavor Indian dishes like chaats, and vegetable and fruit salads.

Smoked Salt

What is it? The effects of smoke on salt are quite remarkable: the smoke clings to the surface of the salt crystals, coating them with a rich, woody color and imparting a strong, smoky flavor. And when the salt dissolves, that flavor goes straight into the food.

People have been smoking their salt since at least the time of the Vikings, who produced salt by evaporating seawater in a big vessel over an open, smoky fire containing juniper, cherry, elm, beech and oak woods.

In modern times, the salt is often produced first, then subsequently smoked.

Uses: Both Maldon from England and Halen Môn in Wales produce a salt that has been smoked over oak wood. The type of wood used has a distinct effect on the flavor: salt smoked over chardonnay oak wine barrels, for example, will achieve a gentle smoke flavor with a savory hint of wine.

Similar in concept to smoked salt is jook yeom, a Korean salt made by roasting sea salt in bamboo cylinders plugged with yellow mud. The salt absorbs minerals from the bamboo and mud, which in turn leach the salt of impurities. Many Koreans use bamboo salt for its nutritional value and as an aid for indigestion.

Flavored Salt

There are many flavored salts on the market now, but the best ones to buy are those that you would be unable to make yourself.

Truffle salt – The black truffle is one of the most sought-after foods in the world; it is also one of the most expensive. An ideal way to add the taste of black truffle to food is to add it to salt, which is an ideal medium for carrying both the strong aroma and the delicate flavor of the truffle.

Properties: Perhaps the best of these is Tetsuya’s Truffle salt – a delicate and aromatic blend of ground black truffle and sea salt, sourced from Italy, which brings the unique aroma of truffle to everyday dishes, turning them into something exotic and exciting.

Vanilla salt is also very useful to have in the cupboard: you will be surprised how many things it will enliven, from fruit to seafood. And many salt companies sell prepared combinations of salt, herbs and spices to use as the basis of rubs and marinades. Just be aware that, unlike ordinary salt, these flavored salts will not last forever, so buy them in quantities you know that you will use.

The Himalayan Salt Block

Cut from slabs of solid crystal salt, the Himalayan salt block is an innovative way to add salt to the cooking (or curing) process. The salt block may be chilled to freezing point or heated up to 32 degrees F (230˚C), making it ideal for serving a range of hot or cold foods.

Properties: The blocks are carved from slabs of pure salt that is estimated to be up to 250 million years old. They look a little like pink marble, but one touch with the tongue confirms that they are indeed made of salt. 

Uses: They can be used as serving platters, to cure food and to cook it—and not just savory dishes: a chilled block can be used for tempering chocolate, setting caramel, or even for creating a dramatic fruit flambé to present at the table.

Tips: Although salt blocks will sustain temperatures from –18˚C to over 450˚C, it is best to reserve one block for each purpose. Those that have been subject to heat will change their appearance as a result, becoming more tempered and less suitable for presentation. The salt block must also be heated SLOWLY. This can be done in the oven or on the stove top, but care should be taken to avoid it touching electric elements. The salt block should also be carried very carefully when hot, particularly if it has developed any cracks.

Excerpted and adapted from The Salt Book* by Fritz Gubler and David Glynn, reprinted with permission of Arbon Publishing.

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Choosing Salt for Recipes

The Gourmet Cookbook: More than 1000 Recipes (2004)

edited by Ruth Reichl 

1056 pages -- following info from page 54

Table salt, kosher salt, and rock salt all come from salt mines, whereas sea salt is obtained by evaporating seawater. Some manufacturers add iodine to salt, for nutritional reasons, as well as free-flowing agents to prevent the crystals from clumping together.

TABLE SALT has small crystals. When iodine has been added, it's called iodized salt. In our recipes, when we call for just "salt", we mean table salt.

KOSHER SALT is preferred by many chefs because it's easy to grab when making a dish and doesn't dissolve on the fingers. It may or may not have additives, depending on the brand. When applied to salt, the word "kosher" doesn't mean kosher in the usual sense of conforming to Jewish dietary laws. (All salt, coarse or fine, is considered pareve -- neither animal nor diary). Rather, it means that the salt is a coarseness suitable for koshering meat and poultry. (One part of the koshering process is salting the meat to remove as much blood as possible. If the salt is too fine, it dissolves on the surface; if it is too coarse, the flakes or pellets won't draw out enough blood.)

ROCK SALT usually found in hardware stores and used for melting snow, is very coarse grayish salt. Because it isn't manufactured under the same standards as table, kosher and sea salts, it isn't FDA-approved for culinary use.

SEA SALT, available in coarse or fine crystals, comes from seawater that has been allowed to evaporate naturally. Depending on the brand, iodine and free-flowing agents may have been added. Most of the sea salt sold in the United States is imported. The most famous kind is from France's Brittany region. According to Mark Kurlansky, the author of Salt: A World History, Brittany's sel gris acquires its distinctive color when salt crystals sink to the gray earth at the bottom of the salt ponds. Fleur de sel is not sel gris washed white; it's lightweight crystals that float to the ponds' surface and are skimmed off. Other sea salts include Maldon, harvested in England since the Middle Ages; Anglesey from Wales; Sicilian salt from the huge salt flats at Trapani; Korean salt, which is roasted in bamboo cylinders; pink Hawaiian salt harvested from clay salt pools; and black Hawaiian salt from lava-lined pools.

Sea salt can add not just flavor but a spike crunch to food, so it is best used as a garnish or condiment. Big, almost shardlike crystals of Maldon salt are delicious, for example, sprinkled on a tomato sandwish or a grilled fish. If you do want to cook with sea salt (for some reason, greens seem especially delicious when cooked with fleur de sel), be aware that you can't substitute measure for measure (particularly in baking) if a recipe calls for table or kosher salt, so err on the cautious side.

The Byerley Turk

Jeremy James, author of The Byerley Turk: The True Story of the First Thoroughbred, became involved in an intense scholarly quest to trace the origins of the "first thoroughbred". His on-horse search took him via Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Belgium, France, and his native English shores, and then Ireland by car. His textual search involved a prowl across languages, particularly ancient ones—Ottoman records in Arabic script and Ottoman Turkish—as well as Polish, German, Latin, and old court French. His interest in writing this book stems to his years traveling for the International League for the Protection of Horses as an equine nutritionist, which enabled his to gather extensive information on horse breeding and intercultural methods of viewing and appreciating equine creatures.

The story begins in the Balkans, 1678, with a Tekke seyis, a Steppe tribesman who functioned as "groom", a very simplistic English translation of what his job entailed. Good augur begins with the birth of a foal on the auspicious 15^th night of Shaban, in the 8^th month, on the Night of Justification takes place; the timing is filled with auspicious omens, every one that sooth-sayers have been predicting in addition to other augurious omens: born in the black of a storm in torrents of water amidst thunder and torrents, with the rare Whorl of the Spurs pointing most auspiciously upwards upon his back, a blessed augury for “safety in battle”. People would kill for such an auspicious horse. The seyis somehow knowing his destiny is entwined with this horse and so emboldened dares to name his master’s horse following proper traditional naming rules—beginning with the first name of the father’s name (Ates - Fire) and having one letter of the mother’s (Zarif – Elegant) to give her honor. Thus, the seyis, awed by the omens, dared to announce the only possible name for the colt—Azarax, Son of Fire.

Three years later after the minutest care in training Azarax and his stallmate Bora, the pair of colts along with their seyis was sent to war. Beneath the fluttering Holy Standard, beneath the flying Crescent Moon, the Turk army led by the Sultan, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, stuck out on their war horses that were to cast dung on the tiles of the Nave of St. Peter’s in Rome. Insignificant seyises look after horses after the whim of the masters and Envir Altinay Paşa, a skilled horseman, had become the seyis’s new master, and accordingly could choose among the choice horseflesh for his mounts. The seyis regarded him and intuitively knew that no matter how skilled a horse-rider this man was, he was not in communion with the horse his rode or even aware that a horse and rider must intuitively connect; the Paşa was unaware of the inner voice of horses that responded outwardly to the rider, he was a mechanical rider and could not command the spirit of a horse. When Paşa rode Az, he could not feel the fire of the horse but the resistance of disconnect, so he choose Bora as his mount. The seyis was not unhappy at the choice; Az’s destiny was yet to be revealed and such perfect horseflesh should not be wasted on such a self-filled man.

One quiet day while waiting for battle, the seyis quietly takes Az along with Bora for a run on a sandy beach. He allows Az to set the pace—from a quarter trot to extended trot, a slow canter to a slow gallop and finally of Az’s own volition a fully stretched out gallop that seems to absorb energy from the sun, the wind and the sea, and as they streak along Az stretches even further to absolute maximum velocity whereupon the seyis easily turns into the cantle-less saddle, draws his bow and releases three arrows into his last three hoof prints, the mark of a horseman archer. Two hearts, two minds, one will. No one knows the power of Az or the skill of the quiet seyis. Their destinies are still to be revealed.

In war the horse feeds on food that he would formerly have ignored. The seyis has raised his colts on diets that give strength and when he can he continues to give them fruit—figs, pomegranates, peaches and pears—he puts garlic in their barley balls to rid them of worms because he knows the secret phases of the moon and the timing of medicine. Intuitively he watered them profusely when other seyises said no, not to water a hot horse, and his horses now carried muscle and weight and did not look pinched nor parched, their tongues were not dry and their eyes had not shrunk into their skulls. “Instead their eyes glistened, their bellies were filled with the seeds of the fruit and green grass, they moved with the power of the barley, and were not consumed by the worms.” To a Persian seyis the Tekke seyis, as he mixed dates with a raw egg, barley, chopped figs, skinned pomegranates and sliced pears, said, "it is important to give the horse the best feed so that his skin radiates the shine of the inner sun.” The Persian seyis walked away shaking his head and threw a measure of barley to his horse, wondering why his horse’s coat did not glow, exude good health and feel soft to the touch.

After feeding his stallions, the seyis lay between the hooves of the horses and fell asleep, knowing that the horses would stand vigilant all night and the three of them would remain together and safe. He does not drink raki with the other seyises, he has not sword or shield and others say he will die. He does not but lives strong in tight relation with his horses who do not mingle either; they are a three-entity team. They protect each other and take confidence in their tight bond.

Turks know the history of good horseflesh, and many strong horse breeds have evolved. Azarax was a Karaman horse, lighter in bone than the Germiyan, two of the breeds that came from the Steppe many centuries before. They are tall fast horses, flat of knee and wide of forehead, with brilliant eyes, broad backs and high intelligence. They are horses of spirit and fire, of ego and pride, with hard blue feet and flashing teeth. They are afraid of nothing. Cross them and they will kill you. They are Turks, pure Turks.

But not all battles are to be won, for in every battle a side must lose, and so it was with the Ottomans. With Bora killed in the heat of battle, only the seyis and Az remained alive, the duo were even more connected. Capture. Az was captured by the British empire, the enemy. Feeling his bond and his destiny still entwined in that of Az’s, the seyis requested to go with and care for the horse. The faithful groom, connected to his horse whose destiny was perhaps starting to unfold, felt that their threads of existence were still entwined in the spiritual world. The seyis went voluntarily, loyally and ended up in England where Az was either to be sold as a breeder or to a horse track. The seyis snorted that such a destiny—the race track, a place for middlings—could not be for the great powerful war horse with such auspicious augury, born in the storm and carrying the Whorl of the Spurs.

And indeed Az’s destiny was unfolding. The seyis knew when he saw Robert Byerley that here was the man who would sever his own connection to Az but who would lead Az to his full destiny; here was the man who would control the great horse that no one other than himself had ever really had control of before. These two would be connected, and the seyis knew his own destiny and role in training this mighty horse had been fulfilled. It was time to sever their connection so that Byerley and Az could be strengthened through their new and predestined bond. Robert Byerley, the unusual leader of men and principled former Parliament Justice of the Peace who refused to sign an act that he felt was unjust, bought Azerax for £1000. Byerley was to lead his own men to war and when he rode Az on the first day, he knew that here was a horse that was superior to any he had ever ridden and perhaps ever known, and together they would be safe in their togetherness in the war.

Byerley’s horse became the darling of the greater part of the English army, and his fame traveled before him. The horse seemed to know intuitively where the cannon balls would fly and when to side-step. Cavalry men gladly followed Byerley’s horse, who fought at the forefront of battles, side-stepping with the large cavalry successfully side-stepping also. He became a mascot in England and known as the King of all Horses, Protector of the Regiment, the Horse with the Sixth Sense. He was a charm, a mascot, an augury; it was counted good luck if he walked across a person’s path and good luck if seen drinking. Fortune was to the person who would gaze into his fiery eyes.

Years passed. He retired with Byerley on his country estate. He aged and seemed to look whistfully into the past at times as if in search of his first master, the seyis, and at others as if seeing images in the future or of another realm. The Byerley Turk died in his stable on March 16^th, 1703. Byerley buried him not a stone’s throw from where he died and knew that the great war horse had achieved his paradise. The Turk’s grave marker was that of a tree, to grow mighty and tall and to feed on the physical strength of the great horse that fought with vigor and pride in multiple wars and to show stature and power to future generations.

The Byerley Turk, a painting commissioned of the famous horse along with his native Turkish groomsman,
the seyis, who was captured with the mighty stallion and took care of him during their early times in England.

The seyis had completed his destiny with Azarax, the Byerley Turk. Captured by Christian forces, he escaped after seeing that Azarax’s destiny for greatness was being fulfilled, and so he returned to the Privy Stables in 1690. At the age of 37 he succeeded the baş imrahor, Master of Horse of the Ottoman Sultan in Istanbul, and was said to have taken horse breeding in the Ottoman Empire to new heights. He was killed in the second Siege of Belgrade in 1717 at the age of 57.

In 1791, James Weatherby, nephew of the first James Weatherby, first Secretary of the Jockey Club, founded in the Star and Garter Coffee House in London, published the first General Stud-book. In it, he laid down the commonly-accepted principle that all lineage of all thoroughbred racehorses could be traced to three foundation sires: The Godolphin Barb in 1729, The Darley Arabian in 1706, and the Byerley Turk in 1686.

Old Turkish horse-training methods:

The seyis stayed day and night in the field with Azarax; he lived like an animal himself, always seeing to the minutest detail of Azarax’s diet, his brushing, his care, his emotional well-being, and training him for his role as a battle horse. His role in leading Azarax to his destiny was a pure symbiosis of man and horse. Living with and game playing were crucial to the training.

Day 1 – laying his hands upon the foal and gazing into his eyes—a connection of souls

Day 2-3 – placing on a headstall, embued with the blue bead to ward off the Evil Eye of a djinn; within two days Az can be lead; teaching him not to pull; no whip or fear tactics ever used, just firm confidence, encouragement and awards; establishing an intuitive closeness with the animal

Subsequent days – riding Zarif (Az's mother) with Azarax following, increasing Az’s trust and his strength; rubbing Az’s head and praising him after crossing a river, reinforcing no fear in water

Within 1 week – a sack  loosely tied on the colt’s back; a few days later, tightened and loaded with objects that clank; the seyis at all times projects trust and the clanking pots are allowed; by the end of a week, the colt carries a kagan shield, a saucepan with stones in it, a sack stuffed with clothes and on top a puppy. The seyis walks along always projecting safety, confidence, security.

By summers end – another colt is added to the training and the seyis now is training two. Az has transferred his playful affection to Bora, the new colt. The seyis feels jealousy but does not allow these thoughts. He must train these colts, especially Az, to achieve his destiny and to do so, Az must learn to associate and interact well with horses. He is a horse; no, he is a king of a horse and must learn to be that king.

Following weeks – the two colts schooled in unfamiliar sights and sounds—waving flags, lighted fires, small firecrackers, pistol shots. Bora slightly nervous but Az seems deaf, indifferent; his spirit is splendid.

By 2 months – nothing alarms the colts, not smoke or fire, gunshot or powder; they avoid sticks and stones hurled at them, they carry saddles and follow the command of humans.

1 year – the colts are weaned by their mothers, not taken away prematurely

After weaning – stirruped saddles fitted on horses and the slight seyis steps into the saddle briefly and steps out; the colts are never overbalanced, frightened, panicked.

At 3 years of age – the colts with their seyis are ordered to report for battle duty. Out of the 1000s of horses the seyis can recognize the voice of his horses, and they among the 1000s of seyises know his. They are an intimate threesome.

Samurai William: Character for Clavell's Shogun

I stuffed the book Samurai William: The Adventurer Who Unlocked Japan in my purse and headed off to a lecture at the Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch. I knew I would arrive a bit early so plunked myself down on a lobby couch and opened the book. The story immediately gave me the impression that I was reading a less-racy, well-researched, little-romance version of James Clavell's well-embroidered tale, Shogun. Whipped out my smartphone and sure enough, John Blackthorne in Clavell's novel is modeled after the first British sailor (on a Dutch ship) to Japan, William Adams, or Samurai William as dubbed by Giles Milton in his semi-biography of the British navigator-pilot turned confidant to the shogun and intercessory buffer for the later arriving British, Dutch and other nationalities of traders. As soon as I confirmed the link, two other scholar-friends passed by, saw the book and immediately made the link between Clavell's Shogun and Samurai William. So the question is, which is better - documentary-style history or a juicy detailed novel? I vote for Samurai William, but I wouldn't have understood it as well without having read Clavell's Shogun, so they both have their place in writing the historical record.

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In 1598 when he was 34 and bored with being just a pilot of English woolens to Barbary, William Adams heard rumors of a fleet setting sail to the fabled Spice Islands and rushed off to the Netherlands to join the fleet, which was suspiciously silent on its true intended destination. Yet, he and his brother got employment and set sail aboard the Hoop (Hope) and later transferred to the Liefde (Love). They were accompanied by three other ships as well - Geloof (Faith),  Trouw (Fidelity) and Blijde Boodschop (Merry Messenger),

Through hostilities from indigenous people, shortage of food and water, the Liefde (the only ship to make it so far) finally floated into a Japanese harbor, with just 26 men and Adams among them barely alive and unable to even row the boat or defend themselves. They were sick from starvation, scurvy, dysentery and on the verge of death. A band of silken-robed and oil-scented warriors boarded the derelict ship and, ignoring the sick and dying men, stripped the ship of anything valuable and good. No men were bothered, all were systemically ignored. Fortunate for Adams and his men, the local brigand who controlled the strip of land their ship was floating near, heard of the pillaging and with curiosity of the other-worldly appearance of such a strange sea-faring vessel, ordered the goods be returned, and thus began the slow opening of the wharves of Japan to the outside world.

Already the Jesuits were well established in the land, and they had the ear of the shogun. They were not there as traders but as religious adherents spreading their religious fervor. However, it wasn't to the Jesuits' advantage for the protestant Englishmen and Dutch to be entering into the land of Japan for then the shogun would learn that things were not as presented by the Jesuits. In becoming accepted and entrenched into the Japanese society, Father Valignano had ordered that all Jesuits become as Japanese as possible - being robed in silks, eating three grains of rice at a time and sitting back on one's heals while dining, and he even wrote a handbook on decorum to meet that end, Advertimentos. The Jesuits were therefore by this time well in-tuned with the language and had attained a high level of decorum. And Father Valignano was a confidant and advisor to the shogun. No, the Jesuits didn't want the British and Dutch ruining any of their connections or letting Japan know that other religions outside of Catholicism existed, and especially one(s) so contested by the Papacy.

William Adams, however, had the fortune to be listened to by the local authority, who sent him off to the shogun for a hearing. The shogun was interested in Adams sea-faring stories and his documentations for charting the seas and navigating. Father Valignano was the translator but quickly Adams realized Valignano's subtle treachery in undermining the good vibes between him and the shogun and determined to learn the Japanese language. He seemed to have a prowess for languages as he quickly made himself communicable and almost as quickly replaced Father Valignano as confidante and advisor to the shogun. Adams was duly honored with the title hatamoto or bannerman, a prestigious position that made him a great retainer to the shogun's court. This linked him to the great warrior class that had dominated Japanese history for centuries, for his fellow hatamoto were all samurai -- battle-hardened warriors -- whose role was akin to an elite officer corps, or a military bureaucracy.

And the for the next several years, Adams served the shogun, marrying a local Japanese woman and having two more children, (one baby daughter and his wife remained clueless of his life and desire but inability to return to them in England). It was not until July 1613, 13 years later when the Clove anchored in Japan that he next saw any fellow Englishmen. He had romanticized about meeting his countrymen but when they arrived, reeking of body sweat and dressed like animals, (eating that way to) and having low manners and big egos did he realize that he had gone native. The sailors were likewise delighted to see a fellow Englishmen in such distant, forbidden waters but they were even more shocked by his "going native". Neither could they understand the propriety of patience and gift-giving to garner respect before slowly introducing the "business" of opening trade. Adams became an invaluable advisor for them and a go-between them and the shogun, who was interested in cultivating foreign trade.

Years passed. At 55 William Adams (1564-1620) was no longer youthful. He had suffered the ravages of diseases as a sailor and more recently picked up a kind of debilitating malaria in Cochinchina on a voyage he made for the shogun. Never returning to his family back in England, Adams died among the British sailors/traders he was helping. (His son was soon afterwards given the titles and lands that Adams had held, continuing and honoring the legacy of the man who had helped Japan in many more ways than just opening the ports for foreign trade.)

Adams survived Ieyasu (1543-1616), his patron and shogun, by four years. In those four years, Ieyasu's son, Hidetada, had ruled which established that the shogunate was to be a hereditary title. Hidetada didn't have the same brilliance and acumen for business, control (war), and organization as his father and he was soon replaced by his sadistic son, Iemitsu, who had a keen hatred for foreigners and proceeded to hound them out of his territory. However, the British, due to the more and more restrictions placed on their trade and being reduced only to one port, withdrew from England in 1622, a few short years before Iemitsu became shogun.

After Iemitsu became Shogun, foreigners were no longer welcomed. The Jesuits and their converts were the first to feel the barbarity of Iemitsu, soon followed by the expulsion of the Portuguese traders in 1637. The Dutch were quickly limited to a Deshima Island in Nagasaki bay and not allowed to have contact with Japanese. And so, the Land of the Rising Sun entered a period known as sakoku, the closed country. After a century of contact with foreigners, Japan closed her windows to the outside world and denied traders, and in upcoming years, the few mariners unlucky enough to be blown onto her shores were arrested, tortured and killed.

Not until some 200 years later could the Englishmen and other foreigners reestablish trade with the eastern realm. However, when they did, they were astonished to discover that William Adam's name was still famous throughout the land. They listened to marvelous stories of Adam's rise at court, his role as a spokesperson, advisor, tutor and oracle. His title, estate and extraordinary friendship with the shogun had left a deep and lasting impression on the Japanese. As a mark of their respect, they had named an area of Tokyo, Anjin-cho, in this honor. They also kept his name alive in prayers at the Jodoji temple, said to have been where Adams made his devotions and close to where Adams once had a townhouse. A crowd of believers gather in his honorable memory once a year, and amidst air thickened with incense and the clanging of bells, the pilgrims to the temple pray annually for the soul of Anjin Adams.


Proof that Japan remembers: Anjin Festival - August 8-10

Anjin Festival commemorates the launching of the first western-style Japanese ships by sending festival lanterns down the Matsukawa River, and culminates in a splendid display of fireworks over the sea. The ships were designed and built by William Adams, and the shogun was so impressed with Adams that he gave him a house in Tokyo, two swords, and a badge of rank and authority. The English pilot became Samurai Miura Anjin and had a fief in Hemi (today, Yokosuka) as well as an appreciable salary.

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Today, a monument marks the foundation of Anjin's townhouse in Anjin-cho, and his grave is marked with his Japanese name in Hirado, Nagasaki prefecture. Source

Skeletons Yield Secrets of the Black Plague

Skeletons Yield Secrets of the Black Plague —— (Huffington Post)

LONDON (AP) — You can learn a lot from a tooth.

Molars taken from skeletons unearthed by work on a new London railway line are revealing secrets of the medieval Black Death — and of its victims.

This week, Don Walker, an osteologist with the Museum of London, outlined the biography of one man whose ancient bones were found by construction workers under London's Charterhouse Square: He was breast-fed as a baby, moved to London from another part of England, had bad tooth decay in childhood, grew up to work as a laborer, and died in early adulthood from the bubonic plague that ravaged Europe in the 14th century.

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The poor man's life was nasty, brutish and short, but his afterlife is long and illuminating.

"It's fantastic we can look in such detail at an individual who died 600 years ago," Walker said. "It's incredible, really."

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The 25 skeletons were uncovered last year during work on Crossrail, a new rail line that's boring 13 miles (21 kilometers) of tunnels under the heart of the city. Archaeologists immediately suspected the bones came from a cemetery for plague victims. The location, outside the walls of the medieval city, chimes with historical accounts. The square, once home to a monastery, is one of the few spots in the city to stay undisturbed for centuries.

To test their theory, scientists took one tooth from each of 12 skeletons, then extracted DNA from the teeth. They announced Sunday that tests had found the presence of the plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, in several of the teeth, meaning the individuals had been exposed to — and likely died from — the Black Death.

The findings didn't stop there. Archaeologists, historians, microbiologists and physicists worked together to apply techniques from several scientific disciplines to the discovery.

Radiocarbon dating and analysis of pottery shards helped determine when the burials took place. Forensic geophysics — more commonly used in murder and war-crimes investigations — helped locate more graves under the square. Studying oxygen and strontium isotopes in the bones revealed details of diet and health.

These were, by and large, poor people. Many of the skeletons showed signs of malnutrition consistent with the "Great Famine" that struck Europe 30 years before the Black Death. Many had back injuries suggesting lives of hard labor. One man became a vegetarian late in life, indicating he may have entered an order of monks.

Archaeologists were surprised to discover that the skeletons lay in layers and appeared to come from three different periods: the original Black Death epidemic in 1348-1350, and later outbreaks in 1361 and the early 15th century.

"It suggests that the burial ground was used again and again for the burial of plague victims," said Jay Carver, Crossrail's lead archaeologist.

The Black Death is thought to have killed at least 75 million people, including more than half of Britain's population, yet the burials suggest a surprisingly high degree of social order — at first. As the plague ravaged continental Europe — borne westward by fleas on rats — city fathers leased land for an emergency burial ground. The burials were simple but orderly, the bodies wrapped in shrouds and laid out in neat rows, sealed with a layer of clay.

The later skeletons, however, show more signs of upper-body injuries, consistent with a period of lawlessness and social breakdown.

Archaeologists are planning a new dig this summer to learn how many bodies lie under the square. Carver says the number appears to be in the "low thousands."

And the teeth may not have yielded all their secrets. Experts in ancient DNA at McMaster University in Canada are working to sequence the plague genome found in the teeth, in order to learn more about a disease that still infects several thousand people a year around the world. Most patients recover if treated early with antibiotics.

Scientists want to know if the 14th-century disease is the same as the modern version, or whether the disease has evolved. Study of DNA from the teeth of skeletons discovered in the 1980s at another London plague cemetery suggested the bug was largely unchanged, but the scientific jury is still out.

Brendan Wren, a professor of molecular biology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the new information could help scientists "understand how the plague bacillus — and other nasty bugs — become so virulent to humans."

"It is useful information that could warn and avert potential epidemics and pandemics," he said.

Jill Lawless can be reached at https://twitter.com/JillLawless

Portrait of an Unknown Woman

The inside of the dust cover reads: Author of Portrait of an Unknown Woman, Vanora Bennett, "was born and brought up in London. She has spent several years working abroad, covering political, military and religious conflicts in unstable countries from Angola to Cambodia to Russia to Zimbabwe. She is a writer and a freelance journalist, writing a weekly column for The Times website, TimesOnline, on the unexpected side of London. She lives in North London with her husband and two children. Portrait of an Unknown Woman is her first novel." It is an masterful weaving of romance, intrigue and art history.

The book centralizes around the artistic family portrait "First Portrait of the More Family" by Hans Holbein the Younger, painted at Chelsea in 1527-28 but destroyed by fire in the 18th century. Bennet depicts Holbein as being intuitive about personalities resulting in paintings that are character studies. Thomas More (1478-1535), author of Utopia, philosopher and lawyer, commissioned Hans Holbein to paint his family picture, and of course Holbein lived in More's home and was sponsored by him during the months of his artist endeavors. As such Holbein got to know the family, their relationships, joys, foibles and tensions, and his painting reflected his perceptions.

More's father and son (both John), his three daughters - Elizabeth (Daucey), Cecily (Heron), and Margaret (Roper) - his two adopted daughters - Margaret Griggs and Anne Cresacre, his second wife Alice, and his attendant Henry Pattinson who represented the fool were included in the family portrait.

The "unknown woman" the book centralizes around is Margaret Griggs, one of the wards who Bennet unveiled at the end of the book as the biological daughter of Thomas More's first love. It was common back in the middle ages to adopt a son or daughter with an inheritance and raise him or her in one's household and marry the adoptee off to one's own biological children, extending the family wealth. Margaret Griggs was a ward but Thomas More only had one son and he was several years younger than Margaret, and Anne Cresacre, another ward, was his intended anyway. Margaret Griggs was the eldest of all the daughters by one to four years and yet the younger daughters were married off but no husband was found for Margaret.

However, unbeknownst to Margaret the family tutor who was hired right after her adoption at twelve or so was to be her intended ... but this was not revealed until the end of the book. Her intended was actually the forcefully disinherited Crown Prince, one of the two princes who were held in the tower of London. Both boys had escaped and Richard, the younger brother, became the tutor for More's children, although Richard had taken on the alias John Clement, a character Thomas More had referred to in one of his books as "my good boy Clement".

Bennet weaves a tale of court intrigue and John Clement, actually the disinherited Crown Prince, recreates himself as a court physician and during a masked ball unknowingly meets his former pupil, Elizabeth Daucey, who is just but unhappily married and masked at the ball but coquettishly entices him to sleep with her. Unfortunately, she is impregnated. Soon after John Clement and Margaret Griggs are married.

"First Portrait of the More Family" by Hans Holbein the Younger,
painted at Chelsea in 1527-28 but destroyed by fire in the 18th century

The second family portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger ...
a family portrait of secrets for family viewing only

A few years pass and Thomas More once again commissions Hans Holbein to paint a family portrait. Holbein comes and is delightfully welcomed by the family, but Holbein, an empathetic character uncovers the family tensions and instead of painting the family in the same position and with the same characters as in the former painting, he switches Elizabeth Dauncey and Margaret Griggs Clement around, altering their focus and tension to John Clement, the only additional person to the painting, and imbalancing the harmony that was felt in the earlier painting. Other tensions are apparent - furrowed brows, taught jaws - hints of something imminent to happen to the family for indeed it was. Thomas More was feeling the pressure of Thomas Cromwell's militant presence and most family members reflected the imminence of the inevitable arrest. Subtle hints of their political persuasions are revealed to the discerning eye.

Supposedly the second painting was never finished, but in its unfinished state was framed and hung in Cecily Heron's home for private family viewing only. No one was to see and infer the heavy tensions and family secrets suggested at by the portrait. Though loved almost like family, Holbein was handsomely paid and sent on his way and the key player who painted and therefore was not in the portrait was evicted far from further family secrets. Thomas More was soon afterwards arrested, sentenced and beheaded. John Clement - the disinherited Crown Prince, now court physician - was also arrested but released. As his older brother Edward had recently died, Richard aka John Clement could have fought for the throne but his fire for revenge had dissipated and would have gone unsupported. He chose to live - he and is wife and son - and only the secrets are alluded to in the second painting by Hans Holbein the Younger.

Paratroopers of the 101st Airborne

Lately I've been doing book exchanges with colleagues who are interested in history and the effects of war. My most recent is Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers about E Company, 506th Regiment, 101St Airborne who first parachuted over Normandy, who often spearheaded attacks on thinly guarded front lines and finally ended up in Hitler's Eagle Nest where blatant looting and wild drinking closed the war, and where casualties were no longer from gun fire but car accidents resulting from the inebriated state.

For an excellent book review, click here.

The name of the book Band of Brothers is the result of specialized training with the same group of men who were forced under dire stress by their unanimous hatred of their company commander, forced night marches where they learned to recognize each other's shadows, and fierce and on-going combat. They were faced with the ugliness of war, destruction, death, and where nothing was worse than letting one's buddy down. And through the grime, filth and blood they formed the closest brotherhood they would ever know, one founded on selflessness and the intimate trust that comes when one knows he can depend on another to do his utmost for his buddies' best interests. And as the book states, by the time they had gotten through the Battle of the Bulge they were a band of brothers who would be linked to one another through life from their shared horrific experiences.

The men of E Company passed through many countries as the war progressed, and each country was stereotyped by their treatment/reaction/indifference to the troops. In general the men had widely different perceptions and experiences with the German people, the supposed enemy. Some found reasons to reinforce their hatred, others loved the country and its people, but nearly everyone ended up changing his mind about their preconceived ideas of the Germans as all of them had some kind of fascination with the German people.

"The standard story of how the American GI reacted to the foreign people he met during the course of WWII runs like this: He felt the Arabs were despicable, liars, thieves, dirty, awful, without a redeeming feature. The Italians were liars, thieves, dirty, wonderful, with many redeeming features, but never to be trusted. The rural French were sullen, slow, and ungrateful while the Parisians were rapacious, cunning, indifferent to whether they were cheating the Germans or Americans. The British people were brave, resourceful, quaint, reserved, dull. The Dutch were, as noted, regarded as simply wonderful in every way [but the average GI never was in Holland, only the airborne.] The story ends up thus: wonder of wonders, the average GI found that the people he liked best, identified most closely with, enjoyed being with, were the Germans. Clean, hard-working, disciplined, educated, middle-class in their tastes and lifestyles (many GIs noted that so far as they could tell the only people in the world who regarded a flush toilet and soft toilet paper as a necessity were the Germans and the Americans), the Germans seemed to many American soldiers as "just like us."" (p248-9)

The book ends with the E Company running riot in Hitler's Eagle Nest but where the incessant drinking in the final days of the war became a bore and the men ached for action or a speedy return home. Finally, on November 30, 1945 the 101st was inactivated and E Company no longer existed. But the brotherhood remained. And almost annually a reunion takes place where many of the former paratroopers get together and re-cement their bonds with one another. Not all have faired well. While all suffered some physical or other adverse traumas of war, the majority were able to adjust back to civilian life. A small number became dysfunctional, three became wealthy, but the vast majority became builders of society.

In the final chapter on the "Postwar Careers" of the men from E Company, it was noted that most men took advantage of the GI Bill of Rights and went to college, became educated and participated actively in contributing to the social, and for some, economic welfare of the US after the war-torn years. And as Ed Tipper, one of the paratroopers, sums it up in regard to why so many of the soldiers returned to be teachers, he said, "Is it accidental that so many ex-paratroopers from E Company became teachers? Perhaps for some men a period of violence and destruction at one time attracts them to look for something creative as a balance in another part of life."