July 20, 18'83.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



35 



the various methods available for attacking superabundant 

 fat, hoping that many overweighted persons among my 

 readers may take courage to enter systematically and 

 patiently on the profital)le work of fat-reduction. 



I begin with medicinal systems as on the whole the least 

 useful methods, and those which need to be most cautiously 

 applied, where applied at all. (I say nothing of corset or 

 busk wearing, partly because in a former paper I said 

 enough of that foolish plan, only fit for those whose 

 resolutions needs bolstering up artificially. I note only in 

 passing that our editor must have been of most inquiring 

 disposition to put so obviously unnatural a method to the 

 test. ) 



Nearly all medical methods for the reduction of at 

 depend in reality on the amount of mischief which may be 

 done by medicines to the digestive system and to the 

 appetite. If a man takes an emetic four or five times a 

 day, and a strong aperient twice or thrice a day, he would, 

 probably, be considerably reduced at the end of two or three 

 weeks, supposing he survived. It is easy to devise medical 

 systems which, without being quite so obviously pernicious, 

 would do so much mischief that a man's weight would soon 

 be much reduced, and also his strength. Of such systems 

 nothing good can be said. Akin to them are such methods 

 as depend on dosing the food with vinegar, or otherwise 

 making it either unpalatable or unprofitable. Yet medicines 

 may be used, especially at the beginning of a course of fat- 

 reduction, with some advantage, if wisely administered — 

 which should be done by medical advice. The fat man is 

 in an unwholesome state, and though he may be able to 

 get better without medicine, he may save some trouble by 

 taking such medicines as a sensible doctor may consider 

 suitable to help the action of the stomach, the liver, the 

 kidneys, and the skin. Albeit, recourse should only be 

 had, in my opinion, to the doctor, in very bad cases, or 

 where, as sometimes happens, the first application of other 

 and better methods leads to constipation, chills, headaches, 

 and other forms of mischief. These are so apt to dis- 

 hearten the struggler against fat, that it may often be well 

 to give the disordered, impeded, or congested organs a little 

 help from judiciously -selected drugs. 

 (To be continued.) 



THE CHEMISTRY OF COOKERY. 



XIV. 



By W. Mattieu Williams. 



IN my last I described the dissociation of sugar by hea 

 and the formation of caramel, to illustrate by simple 

 example the " browning " of other kinds of food. I might 

 have added, in connection with this cookery of sugar, an 

 historical connection with one of the lost arts of the kitclien 

 — viz., the "spinning" of sugar. Within the reach of my 

 own recollection no evening party could pretend to be 

 stylish unless the supper -table was decorated with a 

 specimen of this art^ — a temple, a pagoda, or some- 

 thing of the sort done in barley-sugar. These were 

 made l)y raising the sugar to 320", when it fused and 

 became amorphous, or vitreous, as already described. 

 The cook then dipped a skewer into it, the melted vitreous 

 sugar adhered to this and was drawn out as a thread, 

 which speedily solidified by cooling. While in the act of 

 solidification it was woven into the desired form, and the 

 skilful artist did this with wonderful rapidity. I once 

 witnessed witli childish delight the spinning of a great 

 work of art by a French cook in St. James's Palace' It 

 was a ship in full sail, the sails of edible wafer, the hull a 



basket work of spun sugar, the masts of massive sugar- 

 sticks, and the rigging of delicate threads of the same. As 

 nearly as I can remember, the whole was completed in 

 about an hour. 



But to return from high art to chemical science. The 

 conversion of sugar into caramel is, as already stated, 

 attended with a change of flavour ; a kind of bitterness 

 replaces the sweetness. This peculiar flavour, judiciously 

 used, is a powerful adjunct to cookery, and one which is 

 shamefully neglected in our ordinary English domestic 

 kitchens. To test this, go to one of those Swiss restaurants 

 originally instituted in this country by that enterprising 

 Ticinese, the late Carlo Gatti, and which are now so 

 numerous in London and our other large towns ; call for 

 ■maccaroni al svgo ; notice the rich, brown gravy, the 

 "sugo." Many an English cook would use half-apound of 

 gravy beef to produce the like, but the basis of this is half- 

 anounce of sugar, or even less ; the sugar is browned by 

 heating, not quite up to the caramel state. Burnt onion 

 may contribute, but this is only another form of caramel 

 with more savoury properties. 



While engaged upon your maccaroni, look around at 

 the other dishes served to other customers. Instead of 

 the pale slices of meat spread out in a little puddle of pale, 

 watery liquid, that a»e served in English restaurants of 

 corresponding class, you will see dainty morsels, covered 

 with rich, brown gravy, or surrounded by vegetables im- 

 mersed in the same. This sugo is greatly varied according 

 to the requirements, by additions of stock -broth, tarragon 

 vinegar, ketchup, &c., &<:., but burnt sugar, or burnt 

 onions, or burnt something is the basis of it all, sugar 

 being the cheapest. 



To further test the flavouring properties of browning, 

 take some eels cut up as usual for stewing ; divide into 

 two portions ; stew one brutally — by this I mean simply 

 in a little water — serving them with this water as a pale 

 gravy or juice. Let the second portion be well fried, fully 

 browned, then stewed, and served with brown gravy. 

 Compare the result. Make a corresponding experiment 

 with a beef-steak. Cut it in two portions ; stew one 

 brutally in plain water ; fry the other, then stew it and 

 serve brown. 



Take a highly-baked loaf, better one that is black out- 

 side ; scrape oft' the film of crust that is quite black, i.e., 

 completely carbonised, and you will come to a rich brown 

 layer, especially if you operate upon the bottom crust. 

 Slice oft" a thin shaving of this, and eat it critically. Mark 

 its high flavour as compared with the comparatively insipid 

 crumb of the same loaf, and note especially the resemblance 

 between this flavour and that of the caramel from sugar, 

 and that of the browned eels and browned steak. A 

 delicate way of detecting the fla\our due to the l)rowning 

 of bread is to make two bowls of bread and milk in the 

 same manner, one with the crust, the other with the crumb 

 of the same loaf. I am not suggesting these as examples 

 of better or worse flavour, but as evidence of the fact that 

 much flavour of some sort is generated. It may be out of 

 place, as I think it is, in the bread and milk, or it may be 

 added with much advantage to other things, as it is by 

 the cook who manipulates caramel and its analogues 

 skilfully. 



The largest constituent of bread is starch. Excluding 

 water, it constitutes about three-fourths of the weight of 

 good wheaten flour. Starch diflers but little from sugar 

 in composition. It is easily converted into sugar by 

 simply heating it with a little sulphuric acid, and by other 

 means of which I shall have to speak more fully hereafter 

 when I come to the cookery of vegetables. When simply 

 heated, it is converted into dextrin or " British gum," 



