Why are salt and pepper the "classic" dinner table seasoning?
Salt is perhaps the most basic and effective flavour enhancer, and so it's fairly obvious why we have it on our dinner tables.

The popularity of pepper is down to the Romans, who were crazy about it. Thanks to the longevity of the Roman Empire, pepper was imported for hundreds of years, helping to establish it as the most popular spice, and keeping the price high.

Bill Bryson reports in At Home that:


  When the Goths threatened to sack Rome in 408, the Romans bought them off with three thousand pounds of pepper.