Mary Elizabeth Green

“ According to some authorities ginger was known to the earliest of the Greeks and Romans and has been a common spice among the nations of Europe, including England, since the eleventh century. Under the Plantagenets and Tudors ginger was used as a flavoring for meats, unlike the modern custom of using it only in curries, cakes and beverages. To-day ginger is exported from both the Indies, that from Jamaica being particularly fine, from Africa, from China, from India and from Borneo. The African ginger is of excellent flavor but of dark color. It is chiefly sold to bakers. ”

“ Grains of Paradise are the dried seeds of a reed-like plant allied to the ginger family and indigenous to western Africa. The fruit which contains the seeds is four or five inches in length and of a bright red color. The seed are now never used, excepting occasionally by brewers. Formerly they were esteemed as a spice for cookery and were one of the ingredients of the famous Norwich herring pies of old England. In flavor they are extremely hot and pungent. ”

“ Soy is manufactured in every part of Japan, no fewer than 10,682 firms being engaged in making it in 1891. It is eaten by the [Pg 35] entire Japanese population with every meal and, besides being a sauce, is sufficient as a salt. Used upon fish, beef-steaks and meats, generally, it gives a relish that is impossible to the choicest of cookery otherwise. In Japan it is used by all classes excepting the extremely destitute, who cannot afford to buy it.
Tabasco is a popular sauce, the chief ingredient of which is the pulp of the red pepper. ”

“ There are many varieties of capsicum, the most noted being the capsicum annuum, cultivated in the East Indies, in Mexico and southern parts of the United States, and from which cayenne pepper is made; and the capsicum frutescens, the Guinea or bird pepper, a much smaller pod and which, dried whole, is most often used in cookery. Chilis are used in enormous quantities by natives of hot countries, a paradoxical custom it appears to be, and the hottest, most “peppery” dishes known have originated where the sunbeam is nearest vertical. ”

“ In India the following ingredients are sometimes used, besides those above named: anise, almonds, asafœtida, butter (ghee) , cocoanut and cocoa oil, cream and curds, various nuts, garlic, lime juice, mangoes, saffron, salt, and tamarinds. In India alone there exist nearly forty different methods of preparing curry, to which list might be added the recipes of the numerous spice houses of Europe and America. [Pg 27] The ingredients of curry are always finely ground and well mixed. When lime-juice and butter or oil are added to the curry, a paste is prepared. ”

“ Various appetizing mixtures intended to give relish to meats, fish and soups, and composed of vegetables, fruits and divers spices, are known as sauces. “Roots, herbs, vine fruits and salad-flowers, they dish up various ways and find them a very delicious sauce to their meats, both roasted and boiled, fresh and salt.” No other sauce made compares with genuine East Indian chutney. It is a thick sauce, made from the mango apple, chilies, spices, lemon juice, raisins, figs, salt and sugar. ”

“ Long pepper, referred to by the Greeks as piperi macron, is the unripe fruit of a species of pepper, an inch or more in length and and shaped like a spike. The flavor is similar to that of ordinary black pepper. African pepper is another variety. Those best known to the western markets are Penang, Tellicherry and Malabar.
Cumin or cummin is a small herbaceous plant, native to Egypt and very early cultivated in the Mediterranean countries. It is now grown in India, Sicily and Malta, the seeds only being valuable. ”

“ Condiments and spices are as ancient as civilization. The oldest books of the scriptures, notably Exodus, Leviticus, Job and the Canticles, make frequent reference to salt and spices, substances which were then costly, chiefly dedicated to royalty and the uses of temple and altar. The Greeks followed the Semitic customs to some extent in their disposition of spices, not using them as largely in their food as have later races. ”

“ Ketchup is a sauce made variously from tomatoes, mushrooms, walnuts, oysters, etc. It should be semi-fluid, about the consistency of a good purée and, although spices may be added, the original flavor of the basic ingredients must always be preserved. Color is one desideratum. In tomato ketchup the sauce is always made of the ripe tomato fruit, although, as the color is sometimes produced artificially, the only safeguard lies in purchasing of reliable manufacturers. The tomato ketchup is a typical American sauce, corre [Pg 34] sponding in our dietary with the mushroom ketchup of the English. ”

“ The residents of the olive districts both in Greece, Spain, and in California often prefer the olive preserved after it has ripened, the oil having then matured and the flavor being finer. Among the export trade there is much prejudice against it owing to its dull, black color. Olives should be of good color, crisp and firm, but never tough. ”

“ The tree is common in British Guiana and the tropics and grows to an immense size. It is much cheaper commercially than vanilla.
The extract of bitter almond consists of a tincture made from the kernel of the nut. The tree of the bitter almond originated, it is believed, in Prussia, although now growing wild [Pg 39] in southern Europe. The flavor obtained from the kernel is due to the prussic acid developed in the process of making the tincture. A similar flavor exists in the kernel and leaves of the peach, a tree allied botanically to the almond. ”

“ A short account of the divers kinds and qualities of these excellent substances may lead, it is hoped, to a more intelligent use of them in cookery. Nothing has been said about adulteration, for, while most of the adulterants of spices are harmless, still, fraud lies in the fact that the buyer pays a high price for an article part of which is worthless. As every housewife cannot be her own chemist, her safeguard lies in buying only of reliable spice houses. ”

“ One of the merchants, to whom this industrious old lady sold her mustard, is credited with saying that he owed his wealth, not to the mustard which people ate but to that which they left on their plates. Two varieties of mustard are cultivated, one producing white seeds, the other, seeds which are tiny and black. ”

“ It is known that Hippocrates used cinnamon medicinally and the modern medical world has but recently made the discovery that oil of cinnamon is a valuable antiseptic and germicide. Not until 1506 was cinnamon discovered wild in Ceylon and not until 1770 was it improved by cultivation. The tree grows to a height of twenty and occasionally thirty feet, although, as the bark from the young shoots is of finer flavor, that only is used. Cinnamon shrubs are cultivated in fields, the finest being located in the region of Colombo, Ceylon. ”

“ Few plants are so susceptible to the influences of cultivation and it is difficult to recognize its unaristocratic prototype in the tender, white and aromatic stalks of the garden product. It belongs to the parsley family and every portion is useful to the cook, from the daintily curled tops which may be used for both flavor and garnish, the stalks which may be eaten plain, dressed raw in salad or cooked, to the seeds, the flavor of which makes even the poorest of soups relishable. ”

“ The flavor of onion, when strong, is unpleasant to some people to a nauseating degree and it is hard to see in it any resemblance to its dainty cousins, the lily and the hyacinth. But when skillfully used it is a valuable and wholesome [Pg 23] culinary condiment and is more largely employed by the average cook than the uninitiated ever suspect. Says one author: “The onion is the sheet anchor of the skillful cook. It is impossible to prepare the delicate Bordelaise sauce without resorting to the use of onions and a shade of garlic, ... ”

“ The nations of all the earth contributed. There were capers and olives from Italy, spices from [Pg 42] Java, chutney from Trinidad, Calcutta, and the far away island of Ceylon; ketchup from both England and America, cassareep and pickled limes from British Guiana, soy from China and Japan, and pickles from lands galore. The long, daintily curved, vanilla bean was exhibited side by side with its short, fat, plebeian looking adulterant, the tonka bean. Cordials were sent from every country exhibiting. ”

“ From the friendly concourse of these chefs arose certain of the celebrated eastern dishes, and from its ingredients it is easy to believe that curry was one of them; for in it are united, with the herbs of the temperate zones, the spices and fruits of the tropics. The ingredients used vary in character and in proportion according to the different houses or localities manufacturing it. One recipe calls for the following: turmeric, black pepper, cayenne pepper, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, allspice, cardamon seeds, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, caraway seeds and fenugreek. ”

“ It is cultivated in Europe and is the estragon of the French, who use the young plants largely for salads. It is hardy, and is grown extensively in America, being used for flavoring vinegar, mustard and pickles. Tarragon vinegar, from the excellence of its flavor, should have a place in every household. ”

“ The coloring matter is obtained from the stigmas of the flower, which are of a deep orange hue. The plant grows wild in Asia Minor, is possibly native to Arabia, and has long been extensively cultivated throughout the Mediterranean countries. ”