The Fylde & Wyre Antiquarian

Picking up the salt thread from the General Forum; I was using the last drops of a bottle of Nam Plam fish sauce to prepare a marinade and heard what I thought was broken glass inside. On emptying I found:



I think they're stunning esp the little mallet shaped crystal within a crystal but at about 0.5inch in length could have been a disaster in the chicken dish.

John,

certainly taste salty. There is a warning on bottle label that 'harmless' salt crystals may form.



Just taken another quick pic as camera battery begins to fail, showing scale.

The reason the crystals had formed was because the 'use by' date was 2004. Most of the bottle had evaporated.

Was it a square shaped bottle or are they just random shapes formed by the salt crystals?
Salt's a preservative so the 'use by' date is (sometimes) ignored here, too

Jayne,

It was a square bottle but salt crystals are naturally cuboid (remembering my 'O' Level Chemistry - failed). Thre's so much salt and monosodium glutamate in fish sauce and soy sauce that as conents evaporate they become 'saturated' and crystals form. I was struck by the size of these and at first thought they were bits of glass from the bottle but it was the shape (and taste) that showed they were salt. If you google 'giant saly crystals' you might find an article about a producer in Angelsey who has found a way of making giant crystals for the restaurant industry.

More salt: this is a photo of a number of giant salt lagoons in the Camargue where salt is produced. The sea is on the horizon. The salt is used for culinary purposes and is a pale pink colour.



A salt mountain at same place this is about 30-40 metres high - maybe more.

The Camargue flamingos are aslo pale pink: