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AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



November, 1906 



Eating With Our Eyes 



By Day Allen Willey 



HEN Johnny Smith gets up in the class and 

 the teacher asks him to "define the senses" 

 he twists and untwists his fingers a few times 

 behind his back. Then it comes to him. 

 "Seeing, smelling, hearing, feeling, tasting." 

 Ask the fruit-grower and the marketman, 

 however, and they will tell you that the tongue doesn't count 

 for much nowadays when it comes to getting things to eat. 

 In short, according to what they say, we tell more about 

 food by looking at it than by tasting it. Appearance is pre- 

 ferred to flavor. 



The man who wants to know how rapidly we are ap- 

 parently losing the sense of taste need only visit a corner 

 fruit-stall when business is brisk. As apples form one of the 

 staples just watch the apple-buyers. Nine out of ten will 

 "put their money on the red" and will pay a cent more for a 

 glossy than a dull-tinted apple. Next to it may be a green- 

 ing, which is firmer in flesh, juicier and of a far finer flavor — 

 but it doesn't look as pretty as its red neighbor, and though 

 the latter may be mushy inside and flat-tasting it has the 

 preference. The buyer probably does not know that the 

 polish is sometimes put on the apple by dipping it in the 

 water for rinsing lemonade-glasses and rubbing it with the 

 vendor's dish-rag — but that's one of the tricks of the trade. 



At the same stand the housewife pays five cents apiece for 

 unripe oranges, so sour that you couldn't eat one filled with 

 sugar. Delicious ripe ones, just as large, go at two and 

 three cents. Why? Because the yellow oranges appear so 

 attractive that the lady wants them on the table — not to eat, 

 but for ornament. It is a fact that carloads of "yellows" are 

 shipped to New York from California every winter because 

 they sell at a higher price than eatable fruit — just to look at. 

 That is why at the country fair the judges of the fruit 

 give out the blue ribbon by what they call the "score." Each 

 score is made up of a hundred "points" or credit-marks — 

 so many for shape, so many for color, etc. Now in the case 

 of the apple, one which has a skin free from all bruises or 

 other blemishes gets twenty points on the score-card; but its 

 flavor — its actual eating quality — counts for fifteen — only as 

 much as its form and size. It may have a delicious flavor, 

 far more palatable than the one with the fairer skin, but the 

 other gets the ribbon because it is more pleasing to the eye. 

 Go through "Domestic Hall" and you will see the butter 

 and cheese judged in the same way. Sometimes the judges 

 cut off a bit and put it in their mouths, but the kind that looks 

 nice and is done up in an attractive package often gets the 

 prize, though its flavor may not be up to some which is a 

 little "off color." So it is that butter and cheese often get 

 their rich golden tint by patent colors, which are sold at the 

 "Corners" grocery in packages just like seeds or tacks. One 

 concern in the United States has made so much money out of 

 "butter-color" in the last few years that some of its stock- 

 holders have started a magazine — which shows how rich 

 they must be. 



Take such fruits as blackberries and strawberries. The 

 countryman will cull out the little ones on the bushes every 

 time, if he is picking for his own table, because he knows 

 they are sweeter and richer in flavor than the larger, which 

 have lost in quality as they increased in size. These he 

 picks for market because he can get twice as much for them 

 from his commission-merchant. He also ships him every 

 red apple in the orchard — windfalls and all — and keeps the 



juicier and really finer fruit for the cellar-barrel where he has 

 his winter supply. You can always tell a farmer in the crowd 

 around a fruit-stand, for he skips the shiny, showy part of it 

 and looks for the paler or striped apples. They cost less 

 and "eat" better. 



It seems strange that nuts sell largely according to their 

 appearance, but it is a fact that if pecans or any smooth- 

 coated nuts are polished so the shells glisten, they are actually 

 worth about one-fifth more than if the shell is left in its ordi- 

 nary condition, though the polishing does not affect the food 

 properties one iota. Peanut "factories" in the South are 

 operated solely to clean the shell of this nut and make it look 

 more attractive. Hard-shell almonds sell for about half as 

 much as "soft-shell" — merely because the latter have a little 

 thinner coating and you can crack them with the fingers. 

 This, however, is more of an appeal to the sense of feeling 

 than to the eye, but the rice industry is one of the most 

 remarkable examples of this fascination for the things that 

 look good. The outside portion of a rice-kernel is its most 

 healthful and nutritious part. It contains absolutely noth- 

 ing which is injurious — but it has a dull appearance. So 

 nearly all of the rice which is eaten in the United States — out- 

 side of the Southern States — is "milled." The outside is 

 rubbed off by machinery to give the kernel a glistening ap- 

 pearance. Merely for this reason millions of dollars have 

 been expended in this country for buildings and machinery 

 that do nothing else but polish the grain. They don't eat 

 the milled rice in the region where it grows because, like the 

 farmer who sends his big berries to market, they know the 

 outside is the best of it. Some kinds of coffee sell for a 

 higher price in the grocery because the berry has been 

 "glazed" or polished. It is put up in boxes with glass sides 

 to tempt customers by its good looks. 



A story went the rounds not so long ago that a new kind 

 of hen had been bred which would lay an egg with a handle 

 to it so the cook could turn it into an omelet more easily. In 

 Boston it is a question if they would not prefer a hen which 

 lays only brunette eggs. Produce-men save all their brown 

 eggs for this market, as they are worth two or three cents a 

 dozen more than those which have dead-white shells. Per- 

 haps the dark hue is favored because it resembles the baked 

 bean, but there is no doubt that it is given the preference. 

 On the other side of the country the gourmands of San Fran- 

 cisco want white eggs — the whiter the better; so the dealers 

 sometimes "lime" them purposely to lighten the color. In 

 fact, the West favors lighter tints than the East in about 

 everything except chickens. Chicago likes a lighter-colored 

 butter, and buys glucose with broken bits of wax in it because 

 it resembles white honey. It is the plain truth that dark 

 honey, though perfectly pure, sells at a much lower price in 

 Chicago than the imitation article. On the question of 

 chicken-color however we are a unit. Yellow-legged chickens 

 have the first call over any other kind, although the American 

 tourist in France who asks for chicken gets a fowl which is 

 usually colorless. The French chef claims that the yellow- 

 leggers are no plumper or tenderer than the whites, and 

 proves his statement by showing that the yellow does not 

 come from fat under the skin, as some suppose, but from 

 coloring matter in the skin itself. 



The Department of Agriculture has been making a study 

 of the curious way in which the eye is taking the place of 

 the tongue in our preference for the things we eat. 



