Sometimes we don't have enough time or are able to feed your lion something in time to gain the value from it (Aka honey combs, etc.) And you want to preserve it. Have like the monkey offer it for a certain amount and maybe it adds like a few more days onto it for freshness.

Here is a little snippet from wiki:

Salting is the preservation of food with dry edible salt. It is related to pickling in general and more specifically to brining (preparing food with brine, that is, salty water) and is one form of curing. It is one of the oldest methods of preserving food, and two historically significant salt-cured foods are salted fish (usually dried and salted cod or salted herring) and salt-cured meat (such as bacon). Vegetables such as runner beans and cabbage are also often preserved in this manner.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salting_(food)