Can't believe Salt provides food

[reddishrecue]

You guys are forgetting why salt provides happiness.

 

[tat501]

Pre refrigeration salt was one of the most important products on the planet. Simply put, without it people starved to death.

It preserved food so people had enough to eat throughout winter. That's why it produces food.

 

[neoaspilet11]

Here's Wikipedia historical entry of table salt.


Some of the earliest evidence of salt processing dates back to around 6,000 years ago, when people living in Romania were boiling spring water to extract the salts; a saltworks in China has been found which dates to approximately the same period. Salt was prized by the ancient Hebrews, the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Hittites and the Egyptians. Salt became an important article of trade and was transported by boat across the Mediterranean Sea, along specially built salt roads, and across the Sahara in camel caravans. The scarcity and universal need for salt has led nations to go to war over salt and use it to raise tax revenues. Salt is also used in religious ceremonies and has other cultural significance.

 

[Louis XXIV]

Spices were as highly-valued as they were in part because they were used to disguise the taste of food that had gone off, so yes there would be some justification for giving then a food output.

Historians now think this is a myth. So, unlike salt's preservative power, spices aren't actually going to make food last longer (nor was it ever used to preserve rancid meat).

 

[cinattra]

Maybe the effect of salt could change through history or the effect of salt could accumulate through history. Meaning it could start with increasing trade route length and then add another effect and another and keep all of those effects throughout the game.

 

[PrimoXanthous]

If they get around to making every resource have a bonus effect (like marble's ancient\classical wonder bonus), salt should increase the range of sea routes from the city.

Copper= 10% when building Melee units.


It would really cool if somebody make a mod like this.

 

[HerrDoktor]

Spices were as highly-valued as they were in part because they were used to disguise the taste of food that had gone off, so yes there would be some justification for giving then a food output.

False. One pound of clove was worth 7 oxen in medieval England. You think they would put something that expensive on rotten meat? Spices were a major status symbol and people attributed medicinal value to them, as they believed it could protect them from black plague.

 

[Syailendra]

False. One pound of clove was worth 7 oxen in medieval England. You think they would put something that expensive on rotten meat? Spices were a major status symbol and people attributed medicinal value to them, as they believed it could protect them from black plague.

not entirely false. In europe it might be the truth. But in SE asia, heavily spiced meat, such as rendang proved to not rot for 2 or more weeks. BUT, rendang is also salted by some extent.

 

[Resident Mario]

To answer the OP, for roughly the same reason that Hospitals provide 5: there isn't any other way to represent it in the game.

 

[HerrDoktor]

not entirely false. In europe it might be the truth. But in SE asia, heavily spiced meat, such as rendang proved to not rot for 2 or more weeks. BUT, rendang is also salted by some extent.

Yeah, but not clove, mace or nutmeg. Those were exclusive from Spice Islands, so they were expensive even in Asia. But, as you said, when people talk about spices, they're thinking about the spice trade that moved Columbus, Vasco da Gama and Mangellan's discoveries. You don't go around the world just to save yesterday's dinner.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

Very similar to how a Granary works. Granaries don't provide food, the provide a place to store grain out of the elements to reduce spoilage,

And apparently you can use them to store all of your dead deer too.

 

[Crafty Bison]

Historians now think this is a myth. So, unlike salt's preservative power, spices aren't actually going to make food last longer (nor was it ever used to preserve rancid meat).

On whether or not spices can make food last longer, I'd be much more interested in the opinion of a scientist than a historian.
If, however, you're saying that historians now think people in hot climates have not historically used spices so much, then great, but I fail to see how that necessarily implies that spices do not have preserving properties.

 

[FinsT]

Speaking from someone who does some of his own food preservation, that is where Salt truly comes into its own.
A lot of recipes might include salt for taste purposes. However, salt is still very important to the canning industry even today. Not to mention various dehydrating techniques that use salt and a main ingredient to help that process
of food preservation. Reguardless of what method one might use, food preservation is just as important in temperate to cold climates as it is to hunt/gather/grow/raise livestock. I am sure that those folks who have lived in warm to arid climates also developed the means to preserve food for longer periods of time.

This is true, indeed. Salt preserves. I forgot about this side of it completely doing my previous post, shame on me!

Here i'd just like to add about massive electrochemical potential which salt creates when it's in water or some water-containing substance. This kills vast majority of microorganisms - it literally blows 'em up, so to say. This is what makes it such a great food preserver, iirc; but also, this same thing makes salt an excellent and important healing agent, of sorts: much like it kills any silly bacteria which just tried to rot that piece of meat one preserved for winter, - it also kills nearly any "intruder" bacteria inside our bodies, because our native bacterial microflora - is protected by our own epithelium and other similar systems of the body, but intruder microorganisms are often not.

So it's not just food preserver; i guess it's also a healing agent (if not over-consumed, of course), - especially in old times when there were no anti-biotics, and for other (than human) mammals up to present time.

 

[Kaxen]

How would a hospital manage to produce food seems like a bigger wtf question to me. Are they eating people that have died in there?

 

[reddishrecue]

Salt provides food because it can preserve food. Salt used to be used way before refrigeration to make food last and prevent it from spoiling. Salt was used in meats more tto make it last longer. Salt is still used in meats today too. However, why does salt make people happy? Salt could might as well be another bonus resource.

 

[chazzycat]

How would a hospital manage to produce food seems like a bigger wtf question to me. Are they eating people that have died in there?

haha, well you have to remember that food essentially provides population growth. A hospital (representing modern medicine) would dramatically lower infant mortality, basically having that same effect. Not to mention improve the health of adults so they have more babies.

 

[Louis XXIV]

On whether or not spices can make food last longer, I'd be much more interested in the opinion of a scientist than a historian.
If, however, you're saying that historians now think people in hot climates have not historically used spices so much, then great, but I fail to see how that necessarily implies that spices do not have preserving properties.

I was talking about neither. I was simply addressing whether, historically, spices were used to hide the taste of rotting or spoiled meat (they weren't). I wasn't addressing whether they could (although I suspect there are other problems with eating spoiled meat even if you couldn't taste it). To the extent that the game draws from history for inspiration, it wouldn't make sense for spices to have to do with food.

 

[kb27787]

yeah.... while sugar doesn't (roll eyes at devs) or wine (I guess they just don't eat grapes in that world) and if you create a plantation on a jungle citrus you end up with LESS food (WHY????)

 

[kb27787]

Historians now think this is a myth. So, unlike salt's preservative power, spices aren't actually going to make food last longer (nor was it ever used to preserve rancid meat).

Depends on what you mean by "spice"
Meat? I'm not so sure, but I do know chili peppers were used to preserve vegetables (kimchi)

 

[AW Arcaeca]

If they get around to making every resource have a bonus effect (like marble's ancient\classical wonder bonus), salt should increase the range of sea routes from the city.

Or maybe citrus could have that effect (as a deterrent of scurvy); maybe to simulate the trans-Saharan trade routes, salt can have some bonus for trade routes through desert?

Copper= 10% when building Melee units.

It would really cool if somebody make a mod like this.

Well, you and I are both modders, why don't we get to work on it?