In the 1800s, housewives suspended flour and salt boxes on the wall near the stoves and ovens to keep free flowing salt available for cooking. Back then, salt was only available in lumps and had to be pounded with a mortar and pestle for use.
The salt box was a symbol of hospitality and a well run kitchen.
…her kitchen was…large, comfortable, and warm. …to the right hung a well-scoured salt-box…Over the door…were nailed, “for luck”, two horse-shoes that had been found by accident. In a little ” hole” in the wall, beneath the salt-box, lay a great bottle of holy water to keep the place purified…
Lianhan Shee, an Irish story collected by William Carleton, 1833
