1902.] FLAVORING EXTRACTS. I7I 



look a little more into the work which we have done in this 

 line. 



Foods, as a rule, owe their agreeable taste not to the 

 nutritive elements which they contain, but to small amounts 

 of flavoring principles which are of no food value whatever. 



The nutritive elements of foods belong, as you know, in 

 three classes, namely : the proteids, the fats, and the carbohy- 

 drates. So far as we know, the proteids and fats, when in a 

 state of absolute purity, are without taste or odor, and the 

 same is true of the carbohydrates, with the exception of the 

 sugars. The distinctive and highly appetizing flavors of 

 meats, grains, vegetables, fruits — in fact all foods — are due 

 to minute quantities of substances which take no direct part 

 in building up our bodies. 



Nature has given us the sense of taste and has mixed the 

 nutritive elements with agreeable flavors in her products, in 

 order that we may know what to eat, just as she has given us 

 the sense of pain as a warning against dangers. 



Civilization has, however, carried this baiting of the appe- 

 tite a step further than nature intended. She has educated 

 our sense of taste to demand delicacies which nature does not 

 ofifer ready-made, and to keep pace with our whims has made 

 culinary art a high science. Not only has the earth been 

 searched for delicacies, but also for flavoring substances to 

 make other foods more acceptable to the palate. 



Of the articles of commerce which have themselves no 

 appreciable food value but serve to make foods proper more 

 acceptable, spices and flavoring extracts are the most im- 

 portant. They come to us from the four corners of the 

 globe — pepper, cinnamon, and nutmegs from tropical Asia 

 and the islands of the Pacific ; red pepper from Zanzibar, 

 India, Hungary, and Mexico ; cloves from various parts of 

 Asia and Africa; ginger from the West Indies. India, Cochin 

 China, and Africa; vanilla beans from Mexico, South America, 

 and the islands of the Indian and Pacific Oceans; lemon and 

 orange oils from Sicily and other Mediterranean countries ; 

 and so on. 



In ancient times and the Middle Ages, owing to the im- 

 perfect means of communication with the East, some of the 

 spices were so rare in European countries that they were 

 literally worth their weight in gold and were considered ap- 



