CHAPTER IV 

 FLAVORING AND BEVERAGE PLANTS 



51. Food-adjuncts. If by "food" we mean whatever is 

 eaten to supply the building materials or energy needed by 

 the bod}^, it must follow that much of what is eaten is not 

 food. Various substances, such as pepper, sage, caraway, 

 horserachsh, and vanilla, or beverages, like tea or "wnne, are 

 taken with food for an entirely chfTerent purpose; namely, 

 for their flavor or stimulating effect, and scarcely, if at all, 

 as nutriment. Such materials may be distinguished, there- 

 fore, as food-adjuncts. The flavoring materials included un- 

 der this head may be conveniently grouped as spices, savory 

 herbs, savory seeds, miscellaneous condiments, and essences. 



52. Spices are aromatic substances derived from hard or 

 hardened parts of plants and used commonly in a pulverized 

 state. For example, cloves (Fig. 122) are flower buds hard- 

 ened by drying; allspice (Fig. 12,3), black pepper (Fig. 124), 

 and red pepper (Figs. 125, 126) are dried berry-like fruits; 

 mustard (Figs. 127, 128) is a seed; nutmeg (Fig. 129) is 

 also a seed, and mace the fleshy network (dried) which sur- 

 rounds it; cinnamon (Fig. 130) is the young bark of a tree; 

 while ginger (Fig. 131) is a root-hke stem which grows under 

 ground. 



The peculiar aroma of a spice is in general due to the pres- 

 ence of a volatile oil. Volatile oils bear a certain resemblance 

 to the fixed oils, but differ from them in that they evaporate 

 when exposed to the air, leave no greasy stain on paper, and 

 all dissolve readily in cold alcohol. On account of the volatile 

 nature of their flavoring constituent spices lose aroma when 

 exposed to the air, especially after they have been ground. 



Advantage is often taken of the ready evaporation of vola- 

 tile oils to separate them by distillation. This process is essen- 



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