The Physiology of Taste by Brillat Savarin (bearly read books txt) 📖

and highly flavored coffee.

 

I went home at seven o’clock to get the papers which had been

promised me, but found a note telling me I would not get them

until the next day.

 

Thus in every respect disappointed, I returned to the house where

I had dined, and played a game of piquet, without any of the moody

fits to which I was ordinarily subject.

 

I did justice to the coffee, but I was not at ease as to how I

would pass the night.

 

I went to bed at my usual hour, thinking that if I did not get my

usual allowance, I would at least get four or five hours,

sufficient to carry me through the day.

 

I was mistaken. I had been two hours in bed and was wider awake

than ever; I was in intense mental agitation, and fancied my brain

a mill, the wheels of which revolved, grinding nothing.

 

The idea came to me to turn this fancy to account, and I did so,

amusing myself by putting into verse a story I had previously read

in an English paper.

 

I did so without difficulty, and as I did not sleep I undertook

another, but in vain. A dozen verses had exhausted my poetic

faculty, and I gave it up.

 

I passed the night without sleep, and without even being stupified

for a moment, I arose and passed the day in the same manner. When

on the next night I went to bed at my usual hour I made a

calculation, and found out that I had not slept for forty hours.

 

Section X. CHOCOLATE—ITS ORIGIN.

 

The first visiters of America were impelled by a thirst of gold.

At that time nothing was appreciated but the products of the

mines. Agriculture and commerce were in their infancy, and

political economy was as yet unborn. The Spaniards found then the

precious metals, an almost sterile discovery, for they decreased

in value as they became more abundant. We have other and better

ways to increase wealth.

 

In those regions, however, where a genial sun confers immense

fruitfulness on the soil, the cultivation of sugar and coffee was

found advantageous. The potato, indigo, vanilla, guano, cocoa,

were also discovered; these are its real treasures.

 

If these discoveries took place in spite of the barriers opposed

to curiosity by a jealous nation, we may reasonably hope that they

will be multiplied ten-fold in the course of the years to come;

and that the explorations of the savants of old Europe will enrich

the three kingdoms with a multitude of substances which will give

us new sensations, as vanilla has, or augment our alimentary

resources, as cocoa.

 

It has been determined to call chocolate the result of the paste

of cocoa burnt with sugar and the bark of the cinnamon. This is

the technical definition of chocolate. Sugar is the integral part,

for without sugar the compound is cocoa and, chocolate. To sugar,

cinnamon and cocoa is joined the delicious aroma of vanilla, and

thus is obtained the ne plus ultra to which this preparation can

be carried.

 

To this small number of ingredients has been reduced the number of

things sought to mingle with cocoa in the manufacture of

chocolate. Pepper, pimento, anise seed, ginger and others, have

necessarily been tried.

 

The cocoa tree is a native of South America, and is found both in

the islands and on the continent. It has been confessed, however,

that the best fruit is produced by the trees which grow on the

banks of Moracaibo, in the valleys of Caracas, and in the province

of Sokomusko. The fruit is larger, the sugar less bitter, and the

taste higher. Since these regions have become accessible, a

comparison may be made every day and the palate will never be

deceived.

 

The Spanish women of the new world are passionately fond of

chocolate; and not satisfied with taking it two or three times a

day, have it even sent after them to church. This sensuality has

often drawn down the censure of their bishops, who, however,

gradually closed their eyes to it. The reverend father Escobar,

the metaphysics of whom was subtle as his morals were

accommodating, used to declare that chocolate made with water did

not break a fast; thus for the use of his penitents reproducing

the old adage, “Liquidum non frangit jejunium.”

 

Chocolate was brought to Spain about the end of the seventeenth

century, and the use became at once common. Women especially

showed great fondness for it. Manners have not changed in this

particular as yet, and now throughout all the peninsula chocolate

is presented on all occasions when it is usual to offer any

refreshment.

 

Chocolate crossed the mountains with Anne of Austria, the daughter

of Philip II., and wife of Louis XIII. The Spanish monks also made

it known, by presents to their brethren in France. The Spanish

ambassadors also made it popular, and during the regency it was

more universally used than coffee, because it was taken as an

agreeable food, while coffee was esteemed a luxury.

 

Linnaeus calls the cocoa cacao theobroma, (cocoa, the drink of the

gods). A cause for this name has been sought. Some assign his

passionate fondness for it, and the other his desire to please his

confessor; there are those who attribute it to gallantry, a Queen

having first introduced it. (Incertum.)

 

PROPERTIES OF CHOCOLATE.

 

Chocolate has given occasion to profound dissertations, with the

object of determining its nature and properties, and to place it

in the category of warm, cold, or temperate drinks. We must own

all their lucubrations have contributed but slightly to the

elucidation of truth.

 

It was left for time and experience, those two great masters, to

show that chocolate prepared with care is as healthful as it is

agreeable. That it is nourishing, easily digested, and is not so

injurious to beauty as coffee said to be. It is very suitable to

persons who have much mental toil, to professors and lawyers,

especially to lawyers. It also suits certain feeble stomachs, and

has been thought most advantageous in chronic diseases. It is the

last resource in affections of the pylorus.

 

These various properties chocolate owes to nothing but an

eloesaccharum. Few substances contain in the same volume more

nutrition. It becomes almost entirely animalised.

 

During the war, cocoa was rare and very dear. Substitutes were

sought for, but all efforts were vain. One of the blessings of

peace was that it rid us of all those humbugs one was forced to

taste, but which were no more chocolate than chicory is mocha.

 

Some persons complain that they cannot digest chocolate. Others

say that it does not nourish them, and that it passes away too

quickly.

 

The probability is that the first have only to blame themselves,

and that the chocolate they use is of bad quality. Good and well

made chocolate can be digested even by the weakest stomach.

 

The others have an easy remedy, and they need only strengthen

their stomachs by a pate, a cotelette, or a jerked kidney. Then

let them take a bowl of sokomusko, and thank God for such a

powerful stomach.

 

Here I have an opportunity to give two examples, the correctness

of which may be relied on.

 

After a good breakfast one may drink a full bowl of chocolate, and

digestion in three hours will be perfect, so that one may dine at

any hour that is pleasant. … In zeal for the advancement of the

science, I tried this experiment on many ladies who assured me

they would die. They did not, though, and lived to glorify the

professor.

 

Those who use chocolate, ordinarily enjoy the most perfect health,

and are the least subject to the multitude of ailments which

destroy life; their embonpoint is stationary. These two examples

any one can verify in society by a scrutiny of those the regimen

of whom is known.

 

This is the true place to speak of the properties of chocolate,

which I have verified by many examples and experiments, which I am

delighted to exhibit to my readers. (See varieties at the end of

the volume.)

 

Now, then, let any man who has indulged too much in the cup of

volupte; let every man who has passed in toil too much of the time

when he should have slept; let every man of mind, who finds his

faculties temporarily decay; every man who finds the air humid and

the atmosphere painful to breathe; let every man who has a fixed

idea which would deprive him of the liberty of thought; let them

each take a demi litre of chocolate ambre, (sixty grains of amber

to the kilogramme), and they will see wonders.

 

In my way of distinguishing things, I have called this chocolate

des affliges; because in all the conditions I have referred to,

there is something very like affliction.

 

Very good chocolate is made in Spain; one is indisposed to send

thither for it, for all manufacturers are not equally skillful,

and when it comes it has to be used as it is.

 

Italian chocolates do not suit the French, for the cocoa is burned

too much. This makes the chocolate bitter, and deprives it of its

nourishment. A portion of the bean has been reduced to carbon.

 

Chocolate having become common in France, all sought to learn how

to make it. Few, however, approximated to perfection for the art

is not easy.

 

In the first place it was necessary to know good cocoa and to use

it in all its purity. There is no first quality case that has not

its inferiorities, and a mistaken interest often causes damaged

beans to be put in, which should have been rejected. The roasting

of the cocoa is also a delicate operation, and requires a tact

very like inspiration. Some have the faculty naturally, and are

never mistaken.

 

A peculiar talent is necessary to regulate the quantity of sugar

which enters into the composition. It is not invariable and a

matter of course, but varies in proportion to the aroma of the

bean and the degree of torrefaction.

 

The trituration and mixture do not demand less care, and on them

depends the greater or less digestibility of chocolate.

 

Other considerations should also preside over the choice and

quantity of aromas, which should not be the same with chocolate

made for food and those taken as luxuries. It should also be

varied according if the mass is intended to receive vanilla or

not. In fine, to make good chocolate a number of very subtle

equations must be resolved, and which we take advantage of without

suspecting that they ever took place.

 

For a long time machines have been employed for the manufacture of

chocolate. We think this does not add at all to its perfection,

but it diminishes manipulation very materially, so that those who

have adopted it should be able to sell chocolate at a very low

rate. [Footnote: One of those machines is now in operation in a

window in Broadway, New York. It is a model of mechanical

appropriateness.] They, however, usually sell it more dearly, and

this fact demonstrates that the true spirit of commerce has not

yet entered France; the use of machines should be as advantageous

to the consumer as to the producer.

 

TRUE METHOD OF PREPARING CHOCOLATE.

 

The Americans [Footnote: South Americans.—TRANSLATOR.] make their

chocolate without sugar. When they wish to take chocolate, they

send for chocolate. Every one throws into his cup as much cocoa as

it needs, pours warm water in, and adds the sugar and perfumes he

wishes.

 

This method neither suits our habits nor our tastes, for