Aug. 1, 1884.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



81 



AN ILLUSTRATED 



MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE 



KWorded-ExactlyDe^©^ 



LONDON.- FRIDAY, AUG. 1, 1884. 



OONTBNTS OF No. 144. 



Chemistrv of Cookery, XXXIX. 



Br W."M. Williams 81 



TheTransmission of Power 83 



The EntomologTof a Pond. {Illut.) 



By E. A. Butler 83 



Railway Brakes. By '* Trevitheck " 

 InterDational Health Exhibition. 



X 



Other Worlds than Ours. By M. 



de Fontenelle. With Notes by 



Richard A. Proctor 



The Tricycle of Today. (Illut.) ... 

 Embalmers 



8-1 



87 



92 



Electro-platine. IX. By W. Slingo Kii 

 Tenns in a Three-inch Telescope, 



(/«»».) By F.R.A.S 



British Seaside Resorta, II. By 



Percy Russell 93 



A Catastrophe averted by Electric 



Wires 96 



Reviews 97 



The Face of the Sky. By F.H.A,S. 9S 



Miscellanea 9!j 



Correspondence 100 



Our Mathematical Column 101 



Our Chess Colunin 103 



THE CHEMISTRY OF COOKERY. 



By W. Mattieu Williams. 

 XXXIX. COUNT KUMFORD'S DIETETICS. 



IN the formula for Eumford's soup given in my last, it 

 is stated that the bread should not be cooked, but 

 added just before serving the soup. Like everything else 

 in his practical programmes, this was prescribed with a 

 philosophical reason. His reasoning may have been fanci- 

 ful sometimes, but he never acted stupidly, as the vulgar 

 majority of mankind usually do when they blindly follow 

 au established custom without knowing any reason for so 

 doing, or even attempting to discover a reason. 



In his essay on " The Pleasure of Eating, and of the 

 Means that may be Employed for Increasing it," he says : — 

 " The pleasiu'e enjoyed in eating depends, first, on the 

 agreeableness of the taste of the food ; and, secondly, upon 

 its power to affect the palate. Now, there are many sub- 

 stances extremely cheap, by which very agreeable tastes 

 may be given to food, particularly when the basis or nutri- 

 tive substance of the food is tasteless ; and the effect of any 

 kind of palatable solid food (of meat, for instance), upon 

 the organs of taste, may be increased, almost indefinitely, 

 by reducing the size of the particles of such food, and 

 causing it to act upon the palate by a larger surface. And 

 if means be used to prevent its being swallowed too soon, 

 which may easCy be done by mixing it with some hard and 

 tasteless substance, such as crumbs of bread rendered hard 

 by toasting, or anything else of that kind, by which a long 

 mastication is rendered necessary, the enjoyment of eating 

 may be greatly increased and prolonged." He adds that 

 "the idea of occupying a person a great while, and afford- 

 ing him much pleasure at the same time in eating a small 

 quantity of food, may, perhaps, appear ridiculous to some ; 

 but those who consider the matter attentively will perceive 

 that it is very important. It is perhaps as much so as any- 

 thing that can employ the attention of the philosopher." 



Further on he adds : — " If a glutton can be made to 

 gormandise two hours upon two ounces of meat, it is 

 certainly much better for him than to give himself an 

 indigestion by eating two pounds in the same time." 



This is amusing as well as instructive, so also are his 



researches into what I may venture to describe as the 

 specijic sapidity of diflerent kinds of food, which he deter- 

 mined by diluting or intermixing them with insipid mate- 

 rials, and thereby ascertaining the amount of surface over 

 which they might be spread before their particular flavour 

 disappeared. He concluded that a red-hen ing has the 

 highest specific sapidity, i.e , the greatest amount of agree- 

 alile flavour in a given weight of any kind of food he had 

 tested, and that, comparing it on the basis of cost for cost, 

 its superiority is still greater. 



He tells us that " the pleasure of eating depends very 

 much indeed upon the manner in which the food is applied 

 to the organs of taste," and that he considers " it necessary 

 to mention, and even to illustrate in the clearest manner, 

 every circumstance which appears to have influence in pro- 

 ducing these important effects." As an example of this, I 

 may quote his instructions for eating hasty pudding : — 

 "The pudding is then eaten with a spoon, each spoonful of 

 it being dipt into the sauce before it is carried to the 

 mouth, care being had in taking it up, to begin on the out- 

 side, or near the brim of the plate, and to approach the 

 centre by regular advances, in order not to demolish too 

 soon the excavation which forms the reservoir for the 

 sauce." His solid Indian corn pudding is, in like manner, 

 " to be eaten with a knife and fork, beginning at the cir- 

 cumference of the slice, and approaching regularly towards 

 the centre, each piece of pudding being taken up with the 

 fork, and dipped into the butter, or dipped into it in part 

 only, before it is carried to the mouth." 



As a supplement to the cheap soup receipts given in my 

 last, I will quote one which Rumford gives as the cheapest 

 food which in his opinion can be provided in England : — 

 Take of water eight gallons, mix it with 5 lb. of barley- 

 meal, boil it to the consistency of a thick jelly. Season 

 with salt, vinegar, pepper, sweet herbs, and four red 

 herrings pounded in a mortar. Instead of bread, add 5 lb. 

 of Indian com made into a samp, and stir it together with 

 a ladle. Serve immediately in portions of 20 ounces. 



Samp is " said to have been invented by the savages of 

 North America, who have no corn-mills." It is Indian 

 corn deprived of its external coat by soaking it ten or 

 twelve hours in a lixoviumof water and wood ashes.* This 

 coat or husk, being separated from the kernel, rises to the 

 surface of the water, wliile the grain remains at the bottom. 

 This separated kernel is stewed for about two days in a kettle 

 of water placed near the fira " When sufiiciently cooked, 

 the kernels will be found to be swelled to a great size and 

 burst open, and this food, which is uncommonly sweet and 

 nourishing, may be used in a great variety of ways ; but 

 the best way of using it is to mix it with milk, and with 

 soups and broths as a substitute for bread." He prefers it 

 to bread because "it requires more mastication, and conse- 

 quently tends more to prolong the pleasure of eating." 



The cost of this soup he estimates as follows : — 



d. 

 5 lb. barley-meal, at lid. per lb., or 5s. 6d. per bushel... 7i 



5 lb. Indian corn, at lid. per lb 6J 



4 red herrings 3 



Vinegar 1 



Salt 1 



Pepper and sweet herbs 2 



m 



This makes 64 portions, which thus cost rather less than 

 one-third of a penny each. As prices were higher then than 



* Such UiOvinm ia essentially a dilate solution of carbonate of 

 potash in very crude form, not conveniently obtained by burners of 

 pit coal. I wiU try the commercial carbonate, and report results in 

 my next, stating quantities and other particulars. I have but just 

 come upon tl^i" particular soup receipt for the first time. 



