The Physiology of Taste by Brillat Savarin (suggested reading .TXT) 📕

we wish

chocolate to come to us ready prepared.

 

In this state, transcendental chemistry has taught us that it

should neither be rasped with the knife nor bruised with a pestle,

because thus a portion of the sugar is converted into starch, and

the drink made less attractive.

 

Thus to make chocolate, that is to say, to make it fit for

immediate use, about an ounce and a half should be taken for each

cup, which should be slowly dissolved in water while it is heated,

and stirred from time to time with a spatula of wood. It should be

boiled a quarter of an hour, in order to give it consistency, and

served up hot.

 

“Monsieur,” said madame d’Arestrel, fifty years ago, to me at

Belley, “when you wish good chocolate make it the evening before

in a tin pot. The rest of the night gives it a velvet-like flavor

that makes it far better. God will not be offended at this little

refinement, for in himself is all excellence.”

 

MEDITATION VII.

 

THEORY OF FRYING.

 

It was a fine morning in May; the sun shed his brightest rays on

the smoky roofs of the city of enjoyments, and the streets

(strangely enough) were filled neither with mud nor dust.

 

The heavy diligences had long ceased to shake the streets; the

heavy wagons had ceased to pass, and only open carriages were

seen, in which indigenous and exotic beauties under beautiful

hats, cast disdainful looks on ugly, and smiling ones on good-looking cavaliers.

 

It was three o’clock when the professor sought his arm chair to

meditate.

 

His right leg rested vertically on the floor, his left formed a

diagonal angle with, and rested on it. His back was comfortably

supported, and his hands rested on the lions’ heads which

terminated the arms of the venerable piece of furniture in which

he sat.

 

His lofty brow indicated intense study, and his mouth a taste for

pleasant amusement. His air was collected, and any one to have

seen him would have said, “that is a sage of ancient days.” The

professor sent for his preparateur en chef, (chief COOK) and that

officer arrived, ready to receive orders, advice or lessons.

 

ALLOCUTION.

 

“Master la Planche,” said the professor with that deep grave

accent which penetrates the very depth of our hearts, “all who sit

at my table pronounce your potages of the first class, a very

excellent thing, for potage is the first consolation of an empty

stomach. I am sorry to say though that you are uncertain as a

friturier. [Footnote: Anglice. Fryer.]

 

“I heard you sigh yesterday over that magnificent sole you served

to us, pale, watery and colorless. My friend R. [Footnote: Mr. R—

-, born at Seyssel, in the district of Belley, in 1757, an elector

of the grand college. He may be considered an example of the good

effects of prudence and probity.] looked disapprovingly of it,

M.H.R. turned his gastronomical nose to the left, and the

President S. declared such a misfortune equal to a public

calamity.

 

“This happened because you neglected the theory, the importance of

which you are aware of. You are rather obstinate, though I have,

taken the trouble to impress on you the facts, that the operations

of your laboratory are only the execution of the eternal laws of

nature, and that certain things which you do carelessly, because

you have seen others do so; yet these are the results of the

highest science. Listen to me, therefore, with attention, that you

may never again blush at your works.”

 

Section 1. CHEMISTRY.

 

“Liquids which you subject to the action of fire cannot all

receive the same quantity of heat. Nature has formed them

differently, and this secret, which we will call CAPACITY FOR

CALORIC, she has kept to herself.

 

“You may, therefore, with impunity dip your finger in boiling

spirits of wine; you would take it very quickly from boiling

brandy; more rapidly yet from water; while the most rapid

immersion in boiling oil would heat you easily.

 

“Consequently warm fluids act differently on the sapid bodies

presented to them. Those subject to water soften, dissolve, and

reduce themselves to boilli. The result is bouillon and its

extracts. Those on the contrary treated with oil harden, assume a

color more or less deep, and finally are carbonized.

 

“In the first instance, water dissolves and conveys away the

interior juices of the alimentary substances placed in it. In the

second the juices are preserved, for they are insoluble in oil. If

these things dry up it is because a continuous heat vaporizes the

humid parts.

 

“The two methods have different names, and FRYING is BOILING in

oil or grease substances intended to be eaten. I think I have told

you that officially oil and grease are synonymous; heating the

latter being but a concrete oil.”

 

Section II. APPLICATION.

 

“Fritures are well received in entertainments into which they

introduce an agreeable variety. They are agreeable to the taste,

preserve their primitive flavor, and may be eaten with the hand, a

thing women are always fond of.

 

“Thus cooks are able to hide many things that have appeared on the

day before, and remedy unforeseen requisitions on them. It takes

no longer to fry a four pound chop than it does to boil an egg.

 

“All the merit of the friture is derived from the surprise, or the

invasion of the boiling liquid which carbonizes or burns at the

very instant of immersion of the body placed in it.

 

“To effect a purpose, the liquid must be hot enough to act

instantaneously. It does not, however, reach S this point until it

has long been submitted to the action of a blazing and hot fire.

 

“By the following means it may be ascertained if the friture be

heated to the wished-for degree, cut a piece of bread in the form

of a cube, and dip it in the pan for five or six seconds, if you

take it out firm and dark put in what you wish to prepare

immediately. If it be not, stir the fire and begin again.

 

“The surprise being once effected, moderate the fire that the

action may not be too hurried, and that by a prolonged heat the

juices it contains may be changed and the flavor enhanced.

 

“You have doubtless observed that fritures dissolve neither the

sugar nor salt their respective natures require. You should not

fail then to reduce those substances to a very fine powder in

order that they may adhere the more readily, and season the dish

by juxtaposition.

 

“I do not tell you about oils and greases for the different

treatises I have put in your library give you sufficient light.

 

“Do not forget, however, when you get one of those trout which do

not weigh more than half a pound, and which come from murmuring

streams, far from the capitol, to use the finest olive oil. This

delicate dish duly powdered and garnished with slices of lemon is

fit for a cardinal. [Footnote: Mr. Aulissin, a very well informed

Neapolitan lawyer, and a good amateur performer on the

violoncello, dining one day with me, and eating some thing that

pleased him, said—“Questo e un vero boccone di cardinale.”

“Why,” said I, in the same tongue, not say “boccone in Re.”

“Seignore,” said he, “we Italians do nothing; a king cannot be a

gourmand, for royal dinners are too short and solemn. With

cardinals things are very different.” He shrugged his shoulders as

he spoke.]

 

“Eperlans (smelt or sprat) should be treated in the same manner.

This is the becfique of the water, and has the same perfume and

excellence.

 

“These two prescriptions are founded in the very nature of things.

Experience tells us that olive oil should only be used with things

which are soon cooked, and which do not demand too high a

temperature, because prolonged ebullition developes an

empyreumatic and disagreable taste produced by a few particles of

pulp, which can, being impossible to be gotten rid of, carbonize.

 

“You tried my furnace, and were the first person who ever

succeeded in producing an immense fried turbot. On that day there

was great rejoicing among the elect.

 

“Continue to be coeval in all you attempt, and never forget that

from the moment guests enter the salon WE are responsible for

their happiness.”

 

MEDITATION VIII.

 

ON THIRST.

 

THIRST is the internal feeling of a wish to drink.

 

A heat of about 32 [degrees] Reaumur, constantly vaporizing the

different fluids the circulation of which sustains life, the

diminution they undergo would unfit them for their purposes, if

they were not renewed and refreshed. The necessity of this renewal

is what we call thirst.

 

We think the seat of thirst is in the digestive system. When

athirst (we have often felt the sensation when hunting) we feel

distinctly that all the inhaling portions of the nostrils, mouth

and throat are benumbed and hardened, and that if thirst be

sometimes appeased by the application of fluids to other parts of

the body, as in the bath, the reason is that as soon as they are

absorbed they hurry rapidly to the seat of the evil and become

remedies.

 

VARIETIES OF THIRST.

 

Looking at the subject in all its bearings we may count three

varieties of thirst: latent, factitious and permanent.

 

Latent or habitual thirst, is the insensible equilibrium

established between transpiratory vaporization and the necessity

of supplying what is lost. Thus, though we experience no pain, we

are invited to drink while we eat, and are able to drink at almost

every moment of the day. This thirst accompanies us every where,

and is almost a portion of our existence.

 

Factitious thirst is peculiar to man, and results from the

instinct which impels him to seek in drink the strength he needs.

It is an artificial enjoyment rather than a natural want. This

thirst is really governless, because the fluids we take have the

faculty of reviving it, and this thirst becomes habitual, makes

drunkards in every country. The consequence is, that they drink as

long as liquor lasts, or until they are utterly overcome.

 

When, on the other hand, thirst is appeased by pure water, which

seems the most natural remedy, we never drink more than we

actually need.

 

Hardening thirst is the result of the increase of the want, and of

the impossibility to satisfy latent thirst.

 

It is so called because it is accompanied by hardness of the

tongue, dryness of the palate, and a devouring heat in all the

body.

 

The sensation of thirst is so intense, that in all tongues it is

synonymous with excessive desire, and irrepressible longing: thus

we thirst for gold, wealth, power, science, &c., expressions which

never would have become common had men not have been athirst and

aware of their vengeance.

 

Appetite is pleasant when it does not reach the point of hunger.

Thirst is not so, and as soon as we feel it we are uncomfortable

and anxious. When there is no possibility of appeasing it, the

state of mind is terrible.

 

To compensate us for this, the sense of thirst procures us great

pleasure; and when great thirst is appeased, or a delicious drink

is offered to one moderately athirst, the whole papillary system

is aroused, from the tip of the tongue to the extremity of the

stomach.

 

We die of thirst more rapidly than of hunger. Men with an

abundance of water, have lived for eight days without bread.

Without water, the system succumbs on the fifth.

 

The reason is that in starving, man dies more of weakness; in

thirst of a burning