Recurrent Neural Networks

A measuring cup containing muscovado (left); on the right is a measuring cup containing regular (light) brown sugar.

Natural brown sugar is a name for raw sugar which is a brown sugar produced from the first crystallisation of the sugar cane. As such "natural brown sugar" is free of additional dyes and chemicals. There is more molasses in natural brown sugar, giving it a higher mineral content. Some natural brown sugars have particular names and characteristics, and are sold as Turbinado sugar, Muscovado, or Demerara sugar.

Turbinado sugar is made by crushing freshly cut sugar cane to obtain a juice, which is heated and evaporated to a thick syrup, which is then crystallized. The crystals are then spun in a centrifuge (thus "turbin-") to remove the excess juice, resulting in the characteristic large, light brown, crystals.^[5][6]

Muscovado (also moscovado) is an unrefined, dark brown sugar that is produced without centrifuging and has much smaller crystals than turbinado sugar. The sugar cane extract is heated to thicken it and then pan-evaporated in the sun and pounded to yield an unprocessed, damp sugar that retains all of the natural minerals.^[7]

Demerara (also spelled "demerera") sugar's name comes from the Demerera River area of Guyana, where sugar cane was grown. Demerara is another unrefined, centrifuged, large-crystalled, light brown, cane sugar; it is slightly sticky and sometimes molded into sugar cubes. Some Demerara is still produced in South America, but most is now produced in Mauritius, an island off Africa.

References

1. ^ New Scientist. I'm Sweet Enough 21 January 2006 2. ^ Sugar Association

3. ^ http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/AC911E/ac911e07.htm#bm07.1.3 fao.org 4. ^ Levenstein, Harvey. Revolution at the Table Berkeley: University of California

Press, 2003. 32-33

5. ^ "Organic Turbinado Sugar".

http://www.wholesomesweeteners.com/brands/Wholesome_Sweeteners/Organic_Tur binado_Sugar.html. Retrieved 2008-09-20.

6. ^ "Press release describes manufacturing process for organic turbinado sugar".

http://www.csrwire.com/PressRelease.php?id=3026. Retrieved 2008-09-20.

7. ^ "This is how Muscovado Sugar is made.".

http://www.wildernessfamilynaturals.com/muscovado_sugar.htm#sugarmade.

Retrieved 2008-09-20.

Salt

Salt is mostly sodium chloride (NaCl). This salt shaker also contains grains of rice, which some use to prevent caking.

Brine being boiled down to pure salt in Zigong, People's Republic of China

Salt is a dietary mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride that is essential for animal life, but toxic to most land plants. Salt flavor is one of the basic tastes, an important

preservative and a popular food seasoning.

Salt for human consumption is produced in different forms: unrefined salt (such as sea salt), refined salt (table salt), and iodized salt. It is a crystalline solid, white, pale pink or light gray in color, normally obtained from sea water or rock deposits. Edible rock salts may be slightly grayish in color because of mineral content.

Chloride and sodium ions, the two major components of salt, are necessary for the survival of all known living creatures, including humans. Salt is involved in regulating the water content (fluid balance) of the body. Salt cravings may be caused by trace mineral deficiencies as well as by a deficiency of sodium chloride itself.[citation needed]

Conversely, overconsumption of salt increases the risk of health problems, including high blood pressure.

History

Main article: History of salt

Table Salt (NaCl) Crystal

Human beings have used canning and artificial refrigeration for the preservation of food for approximately the last two hundred years, however, in the millennia before then, salt provided the best-known food preservative, especially for meat.^[1] The harvest of salt from the surface of Xiechi Lake near Yuncheng in Shanxi, China dates back to at least 6000 BC, making it one of the oldest verifiable saltworks.^[2]:18–19

Salt was included among funereal offerings found in ancient Egyptian tombs from the third millennium BC, as were salted birds and salt fish.^[2]:38 From about 2800 BC, the Egyptians began exporting salt fish to the Phoenicians in return for Lebanon Cedar, glass, and the dye Tyrian purple; the Phoenicians traded Egyptian salt fish and salt from North Africa

throughout their Mediterranean trade empire.^[2]:44

Along the Sahara, the Tuareg maintain routes especially for the transport of salt by Azalai (salt caravans). In 1960, the caravans still transported some 15,000 tons of salt, but this trade has now declined to roughly a third of this figure.^[3]

Salzburg, Hallstatt, and Hallein lie on the river Salzach in central Austria, within a radius of no more than 17 kilometres. Salzach literally means "salt water" and Salzburg "salt city", both taking their names from the Germanic root for salt, salz. Hallstatt literally means "salt town" and Hallein "saltwork", taking their names from hal(l)-, a root for salt found in Celtic, Greek, and Egyptian.[citation needed]

The root hal(l)- also gave us Gaul, the Roman exonym for the Celts, Halle and Schwäbisch Hall in Germany, Halych in Ukraine, and Galicia in Spain:

this list of places named for Celtic saltworks is far from complete.^[4][5][6]

Hallstatt gave its name to the Celtic archaeological culture that began mining for salt in the area in around 800 BC Around 400 BC, the Hallstatt Celts, who had heretofore mined for salt, began open pan salt making. During the first millennium BC, Celtic communities grew rich trading salt and salted meat to Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome in exchange for wine and other luxuries.^[1]

It is widely, though incorrectly,^[7] believed that troops in the Roman army were paid in salt.

Even widely-respected historical works repeat this error.^[2]:63 The word salad literally means

"salted," and comes from the ancient Roman practice of salting leaf vegetables.^[2]:64

Mahatma Gandhi led at least 100, 000 people on the "Dandi March" or "Salt Satyagraha", in which protesters made their own salt from the sea, which was illegal under British rule, as it avoided paying the "salt tax". This civil disobedience inspired millions of common people, and elevated the Indian independence movement from an elitist struggle to a national struggle.

In religion

According to Strong's Concordance, there are forty-one verses which reference salt in the English translation of the King James Bible, the earliest being the story of Lot's wife, who was turned into a pillar of salt when she disobediently looked back at the wicked cities of Sodom (Genesis 19:26). When King Abimelech destroyed the city of Shechem he is said to have "sowed salt on it;" a phrase expressing the completeness of its ruin. (Judges 9:45.) In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus referred to his followers as the "salt of the earth". The apostle Paul also encouraged Christians to "let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt" (Colossians 4:6).

In one of the Hadith recorded in Sunan Ibn Majah, Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said that: "Salt is the master of your food. God sent down four blessings from the sky - fire, water, iron and salt"

Salt is mandatory in the rite of the Tridentine Mass.^[8] Salt is used in the third item (which includes an Exorcism) of the Celtic Consecration (cf. Gallican rite) that is employed in the consecration of a church. Salt may be added to the water "where it is customary" in the Roman Catholic rite of Holy water.

Salt is considered to be a very auspicious substance in Hindu mythology, and is used in particular religious ceremonies like housewarmings and weddings.

In many Pagan religions esp. Wicca salt is symbolic of the element Earth. It is also used as a purifier of sacred space.

In the native Japanese religion Shinto, salt is used for ritual purification of locations and people, such as in Sumo Wrestling.

In Aztec mythology, Huixtocihuatl was a fertility goddess who presided over salt and salt water.

In order to preserve the covenant between their people and God, Jews dip the Sabbath bread in salt.^[9]

The Ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans invoked their gods with offerings of salt and water. This is thought to be the origin of the Holy Water used in the Christian faith.^[9]

In weather

Clouds above the Pacific

Small particles of sea salt are the dominant cloud condensation nuclei well out at sea, which allow the formation of clouds in otherwise non-polluted air.^[10]

Salt is used for Snow removal, to make travel easier and safer and decrease the long term impact of a heavy snowfall on human populations. Salt and other chloride-based chemicals eliminate snow and ice from road surfaces and sidewalks by lowering the temperature at which ice melts.^[11]