Natural Sea Salt
Product included in the national list of traditional agri-food products (PAT)
Typology PAT: Seasonings
Production area: Municipalities of Trapani and Paceco
Technical data sheet of the traditional agri-food product (PAT)
Area of production: Municipalities of Trapani and Paceco.
Brief description of the product: Sea salt is more complete in trace elements and more delicate, due to the presence of potassium and magnesium, than rock salt.
Description of the processing and maturing methods: The salt extraction takes place in the so-called salt pans. The traditional saline is made up of four orders of tanks: the "fridda" or first entry tank, the "vasu cultivu" or evaporating tank, the "caure" or evaporating tanks, the "casseddi" or salting tanks. To favor evaporation and the concentration of sodium chloride, the tanks decrease in width and depth and increase in number. Next to the salting tanks on platforms called “ariuni”, the extracted salt is accumulated in pyramidal volumes, called “mounds”.
Specific materials and equipment used for preparation and conditioning: The platforms are covered with terracotta tiles called "ciaramiri" to avoid the damage that the rains can cause. Description of the processing, storage and maturing rooms: The sea salt is collected in the rooms adjacent to the salt pans and packaged by hand using traditional methods without adding additives; it is not processed and devoid of any chemical treatment to maintain all its trace elements.
Elements proving that the methodologies have been practiced in a homogeneous way and according to traditional rules for a period of not less than 25 years: Salt has always been such a precious commodity that it has given its name to workers' wages: wages, which in ancient Rome were the minimum wages of the soldier, made up, among other things, of a handful of salt. The low coast of the Trapani coasts and the favorable climate allowed the Phoenicians to plant the first salt pans that history remembers. Today they are concentrated mainly near the city of Trapani, in the air of Nubia (Municipality of Paceco) and on the large island of the Stagnone di Marsala, very close to the island of Mothia.
Source Pat Cards: Sicily Region
Card insertion: Ignazio Caloggero
Information contributions: Web, Region of Sicily
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