How to spice up your life

QUESTION How did salt and pepper become the standard table spices? COMMON salt (sodium chloride) is essential to life. It plays a vital role in body heat regulation, blood pressure regulation and the propagation of nerve impulses.

For your health, you should eat between 3g and 6g a day. It has always been a key trade object and, at times, has been a currency or medium of exchange.

The word salary comes from the Latin for salt, sal, and so does salad, due to the Roman custom for salting bitter greens.

Salt also stimulates one of the primary sensations of taste. It can chemically block bitter taste receptors and amplify those that sense sweetness. It has long been used to preserve meat and fish, important before refrigeration.

Indigenous to India, pepper came to the Romans around the first century BC. They had pepper storehouses ( horrea piperataria). It became very valuable; it’s said Alaric the Goth demanded the Romans give him a ransom of 5,000 lb of gold, 30,000 lb of silver and 3,000 lb of pepper.

After the Roman Empire fell, Persian (and later Arab) powers took control of spice export routes from India to the Mediterranean, while Italian powers monopolised the European spice trade. This led to the rise of many Italian city states and played a role in the emergence of the Renaissance, thanks to the income afforded by the lucrative trade, which also included cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and ginger. This helped drive the exploration and colonisation of the New World.

Once it became widely affordable, pepper had another advantage; it could disguise the taste of semi-rotten meat.

Black pepper’s popularity had fallen away by the early 17th century, partly because of the discovery of chilli peppers in the New World.

Its resurgence and combination with salt appears to be linked to the court of Louis XIV and the pre- eminence of French cuisine.

Louis was a notoriously fussy eater who banned the use of eastern spices beyond salt, pepper and parsley. Black pepper provided just enough stimulation to the Health and wealth: Salt and pepper king’s meals without overwhelming the taste of the food.

The near exclusive use of salt and pepper as table condiments has since spread through Europe and America.

Mrs A. E. Richards, Stafford. QUESTION How did the hamlet of Twelveheads in Cornwall come by its unusual name? TWELVEHEADS took its name from a mining process called the stamp mill. Because of a ready supply of water in the valley, ore from tin mines was brought here to be crushed, or ‘stamped’, in 12 water-powered stamps, or ‘heads’.

The basic design of a stamp mill has been used for thousands of years for a variety of crushing applications. They were generally powered by water, but sometimes steam engines were used.

Their construction typically involved a series of heavy metal stamps, made from steel or cast iron, arranged in a wooden frame called a stamp battery. A rotating shaft and cam was used to repeatedly raise and lower the stamps on top of the ore, reducing it to finer material ready for more processing.

The stamps at Twelveheads are gone, but those wishing to see a set can visit the restored Tolgus tin works in Redruth.

The heart of the mill is a century-old set of Cornish stamps restored to working order and driven by a water wheel.

It is a 12-headed set of stamps, similar to those at Twelveheads. It is believed these are the only authentic, working Cornish stamps left.

Nathan Crowe, Salcombe, Devon. QUESTION Why are inconsequential things ‘no skin off my nose’? THE phrase no skin off my nose dates, according to etymologist Eric Partridge, to between the wars (c. 1926).

The allusion may be to boxing, as boxers’ noses are the body part most prone to damage. But this is disputed; it may 1. simply derive from the admonition to keep your nose out of another’s business; if you refrain from interfering, you are unlikely to lose the skin from your nose.

Tim Smith, Worcester. QUESTION The derrick, a 2. type of lifting device, is named after a man called Derrick. What other pieces of equipment are named after people? FURTHER to the earlier answer, there are many examples in engineering.

In the world of motorcycles there is Vincent (Phil Vincent), Harley-Davidson (William S. Harley and the Davidson brothers William, Walter and Arthur), Hesketh (Lord Hesketh), Brough (George Brough), Ducati (founded in 1926 by Antonio Cavalieri Ducati and his three sons, Adriano, Marcello and Bruno) and Honda (Soichiro Honda).

Torakusu Yamaha was a watchmaker who built his first portable reed organ in 1887. His firm built pianos before producing the Yamaha motorcycle in 1955.

With cars, we have Rolls-Royce (Henry Royce and Charles Rolls), Bentley (W. O. Bentley), Morgan (Henry Fredrick Stanley Morgan) and Ferrari (Enzo Ferrari).

Firearms named after people include Purdey ( shotguns), Colt, Smith & Wesson, Derringer, Browning, Thompson (Thompson submachine gun/Tommy Gun) and Gatling. Then there is the Bowie knife (Jim Bowie).

Lamps named after their inventors include the miners’ Davy lamp (Humphry Davy) and the Faraday lamp (after scientist Michael Faraday, who went on to discover arc-lighting for lighthouses).

There are also items given nicknames based on famous people, for example, the lifejacket nicknamed Mae West after the buxom actress. Rod Booth, Halifax.

IS THERE a question to which you have always wanted to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question raised here? Send your questions and answers to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, London, W8 5TT; fax them to 01952 780111 or email them to charles.legge@dailymail.co.uk. A selection will be published but we are not able to enter into individual correspondence.