Vintage Salt and Pepper Shakers

Black pepper (Piper nigrum) is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit, known as a peppercorn when dried, is a small drupe approximately five millimetres in diameter, dark red when fully mature, containing a single seed. Peppercorns, and the powdered pepper derived from grinding them, may be described as black pepper, white pepper, green pepper, and very often simply pepper. The terms pink peppercorns, red pepper (as in bell or chile), and green pepper (as in bell or chile) are also used to describe the fruits of other, unrelated plants. However, green peppercorns are simply the immature black peppercorns.

Black pepper is native to South India (Malayalam:kurumulaku,?????????;Tamil:milagu, ?????; Kannada:meNasu, ?????;Telugu:miriyam, ??????; Konkani:miriya konu, Marathi: Miri ????) and is extensively cultivated there and elsewhere in tropical regions.

Dried ground pepper is one of the most common spices in European cuisine and its descendants, having been known and prized since antiquity for both its flavor and its use as a medicine. The spiciness of black pepper is due to the chemical piperine. It may be found on nearly every dinner table in some parts of the world, often alongside table salt.

The word "pepper" is ultimately derived from the Sanskrit Category: wikt - :???????#Sanskrit|pippali, the word for long pepperPippali is Sanskrit for long pepper. Black pepper is marica. Ancient Greek and Latin borrowed pippali to refer to either. via the Latin piper which was used by the Romans to refer both to pepper and long pepper, as the Romans erroneously believed that both of these spices were derived from the same plant. The English word for pepper is derived from the Old English pipor. The Latin word is also the source of German Pfeffer, French poivre, Dutch peper, and other similar forms. In the 16th century, pepper started referring to the unrelated New World chile peppers as well. "Pepper" was used in a figurative sense to mean "spirit" or "energy" at least as far back as the 1840s; in the early 20th century, this was shortened to pep.Douglas Harper's Online Etymology Dictionary entries for pepper and pep. Retrieved 13 November 2005.

Category: File - :Tablesalt.jpg|thumb|Salt is mostly sodium chloride (NaCl). This salt shaker also contains grains of rice, which some use to prevent caking.

Category: File - :Image-Zigong Salt.jpg|thumb|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 can be toxic to many land plants. Salt flavor is one of the basic tastes, making salt the oldest, ubiquitous food seasoning. Salt is also an important preservative.

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