Dairy salt is a culinary salt product used in the preparation of butter and cheese products that serves to add flavor and act as a food preservative. Dairy salt can vary in terms of quality and purity, with purer varieties being the most desirable for use in foods. Dairy salt has been used since at least the 1890s in England and the United States. In butter preparation, it serves to retain moisture, while in cheeses, it tends to reduce water content and slow the ripening process.
Salting butter at Briarcliff Farms in Briarcliff Manor, New York, 1906
An 1819 newspaper advertisement for various salts, including dairy salt
An 1893 advertisement including content about The American Dairy Salt Co. Lt'd.
The effect of salt in cheddar cheese making: No. 1, no salt; No. 2, upper row, 1+1⁄2 pounds; lower row, 2 pounds per 100 pounds of curd; No. 3, 3 pounds per 100 pounds of curd
In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as rock salt or halite. Salt is essential for life in general, and saltiness is one of the basic human tastes. Salt is one of the oldest and most ubiquitous food seasonings, and is known to uniformly improve the taste perception of food, including otherwise unpalatable food. Salting, brining, and pickling are also ancient and important methods of food preservation.
Rock salt (halite)
Salt production in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt (1670)
Ponds near Maras, Peru, fed from a mineral spring and used for salt production since pre-Inca times
SEM image of a grain of table salt
