Culinary Chemistry,
EXHIBITING
THE
SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES
OF
COOKERY,
WITH CONCISE INSTRUCTIONS FOR PREPARING GOOD AND WHOLESOME
PICKLES, VINEGAR, CONSERVES, FRUIT JELLIES,
MARMALADES,
AND VARIOUS OTHER ALIMENTARY SUBSTANCES EMPLOYED
IN
Domestic Economy,
WITH OBSERVATIONS ON THE CHEMICAL CONSTITUTION AND NUTRITIVE
QUALITIES OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF FOOD.

INTRODUCTION.

The publications which I have presented to the world, having been almost exclusively confined to subjects connected with the Fine Arts, I feel it in some measure incumbent on me to explain the cause of my having undertaken to be the publisher of this volume. It has arisen from a distressing event, in which its very ingenious, useful, and elaborate Author, happened to be involved. The work was in some degree of advancement, when the sudden and most unexpected misfortune to which I have alluded, threw him at once into a state of discouragement, that gave a check to all his exertions. I, who had known him long, and had every reason, from a most intimate acquaintance, to think well of him, both in his private as well as professional character, co-operated with many of his friends, some of whom are in the superior ranks of life, to encourage him in the renewal of his former energy—but I could succeed no further than in prevailing upon him to complete this little work on Culinary Philosophy, which promised to be highly useful in some of the leading objects of Domestic Economy. When it was ready for publication, the prejudice which had been excited against him, rendered his former publishers averse from presenting it to the public. I therefore felt myself under a kind of indispensable engagement—nor am I ashamed of it, as the work was brought to a state of publication by my interference, though out of my usual line of business, to become its publisher. I accordingly, under these circumstances, made it my own by purchasing the copy-right. Nor, from its scientific novelty, and promised utility, have I the least hesitation in presenting Mr. Accum’s Work to the Public.

R. ACKERMANN.

PREFACE.

The following pages are intended to exhibit a popular view of the philosophy of cookery, to enable the reader to understand the chemical principles, by means of which alimentary substances are rendered palatable and nutritious. The subject may appear frivolous; but let it be remembered that it is by the application of the principles of philosophy to the ordinary affairs of life, that science diffuses her benefits, and perfects her claim to the gratitude of mankind.

The art of preparing good and wholesome food is, undoubtedly, a branch of chemistry; the kitchen is a chemical laboratory; all the processes employed for rendering alimentary substances fit for human sustenance, are chemical processes; and much waste of the materials, as well as labour to the parties, might often be spared, were those who practise this art, made acquainted with some simple chemical truths which invariably would lead to certain results.

I have, in the first place, premised, as introductory to what follows, some general observations on the various kinds of alimentary substances commonly used for food; in which I have noticed their chemical constitution, and comparative nutritive qualities.

After these preliminary statements, I have proceeded to explain the summary processes of the culinary art, as practised in the English kitchen, to render obvious the chemical effects produced by the operations of roasting, boiling, stewing, broiling, frying, and other means employed for dressing food.

I have given concise, but accurate directions for preparing good and wholesome pickles, and other condiments employed in domestic economy.

I have pointed out the rules to be attended to in the art of conserving recent fruits, and other vegetable substances, in the state of what are called preserves, marmalades, fruit jams, and jellies, to enable the reader to prepare those kinds of comfitures with economy and success.

I have given concise directions for preserving butcher’s meat, fish, and fowl, after being cooked, to render them fit for sea store, or domestic use, at a future time.

I have stated the most approved processes for curing bacon, hams, smoked beef, and salted fish; to which I have added instructions for the choice of butcher’s meat, and the best methods of constructing pantries, larders, and meat safes.

I have pointed out the loss of weight which different kinds of meat suffers in the usual operations of cooking.

I have described the most approved methods for preserving recently gathered fruits in their natural state, as nearly as possible, with directions for constructing fruit rooms, and the circumstances to be attended to in storing esculent roots and other vegetables.

I have animadverted on certain material errors, sometimes committed through ignorance or negligence, in the preparation of food, and various delicacies of the table; and I have also given hints that will be found useful, with regard to the practice of making tea and coffee. And lastly, I have made some remarks on the construction of kitchen fire-places, to which I have added designs, exhibiting the most approved cooking apparatus, calculated for the use of private families or public establishments.

In resuming the whole, I have endeavoured (and I hope with some degree of success,) to communicate to those to whom the superintendance of a family is entrusted, such useful culinary information as may lead to beneficial consequences.

FREDRICK ACCUM.

1821.

CONTENTS.

Cookery.

COOKERY IS A BRANCH OF CHEMICAL SCIENCE.

Cookery, or the art of preparing good and wholesome food, and of preserving all sorts of alimentary substances in a state fit for human sustenance, of rendering that agreeable to the taste which is essential to the support of life, and of pleasing the palate without injury to the system, is, strictly speaking, a branch of chemistry; but, important as it is both to our enjoyments and our health, it is also one of the least cultivated branches of that science. The culinary processes of roasting, boiling, baking, stewing, frying, broiling, the art of preserving meats, bacon, and hams; the preparations of sauces, pickles, and other condiments; the conserving of fruits; the care and keeping of vegetables; the making of jellies, jams, and marmalades, are all founded upon the principles of this science, and much waste of the material, as well as labour to the parties might often be spared, were those to whom the performance of such tasks is committed, made acquainted with simple chemical truths which would invariably lead to certain results. And, besides, the same knowledge would enable them to attain a much greater degree of perfection in curing and preserving all kinds of animal and vegetable aliments, and in combining the three grand requisites of taste, nutriment, and salubrity, in whatever manner they may be prepared. And, though this art is at present in rude hands, as all branches of chemistry were originally, there is no reason that it should remain so. A kitchen is, in fact, a chemical laboratory; the boilers, stew-pans, and cradle spit of the cook, correspond to the digestors, the evaporating basins, and the crucibles of the chemist. And numerous as the receipts of cookery are, the general operations (like the general process of chemistry) are but few. In some the object aimed at is, to extract the constituent parts of the food, so as to exhibit them in a separate state, or to combine them with other substances, to produce new compounds which differ widely from those from which they originated. In others, the qualities of the substances are simply altered by the action of fire, to render them more palatable and nutritious.

From the multiplicity of circumstances to be attended to in this art, the whole of which is founded upon the principles of chemistry, we may easily see that it must be a very precarious one; and, there is reason to believe, that among the variety of circumstances which produce diseases, the improper modes of cooking food, are often the primary cause. Will it be believed, that in the cookery books which form the prevailing oracles of the kitchens in this part of the island, there are express injunctions to “boil greens with halfpence, or verdigrise, in order to improve their colour!”[1] That our puddings are frequently seasoned with laurel leaves, and our sweatmeats almost uniformly prepared in copper vessels?[2] Why are we thus compelled to swallow a supererogatory quantity of poison which may so easily be avoided? And why are we constantly made to run the risk of our lives by participating in custards, trifles, and blancmanges, seasoned by a most deadly poison extracted from the prunus lourocerasus?[3] Verily, where such detestable systems of cookery are practised, we may exclaim with the sacred historian, that there is “Death in the Pot.”

Food badly cooked is wasted to no purpose. It seems to have been a complaint familiar in the mouth of our ancestors, and which we have too often seen reason to re-echo in the present day—“That God sends good meat, but the devil sends cooks.”

OBSERVATIONS ON THE FOOD OF MAN.

No animal eats such variety of food as man; he claims, more justly than any other creature, the title of omnivorous! for since he is distinguished beyond all animals, but the capability of living in the most distant parts of the globe, under every variety of climate which the earth affords, his food could not be confined exclusively to either the vegetable or animal kingdom, because he inhabits regions that afford aliments widely different from each other. Cattle content themselves with green vegetables; rapacious animals live on the flesh of other creatures.

Those of the Linnæan order, glires,[4] live on grain and fruits; each order of birds, keeps, in the same manner, to one sort of food, animal or vegetable. Fishes, reptiles, and insects, also have each their peculiar and exclusive bill of fare, beyond which even hunger will scarcely force them to wander. But however various each class, and order, and species of animated nature may be in the choice of food, man—all-devouring man, will embrace the whole range of the creation, “scarce a berry or a mushroom can escape him.”

With the lion and the wolf he will eat of fresh slain animals; with the dogs and the vulture he will feed on putrid flesh;[5] with the ox and the guinea-pig he will devour raw vegetables, under the name of salads; with the squirrel and the mouse he will feast on nuts and grain; with birds of prey he feeds on fowl of almost every species; with fishes he feeds on fish; and with insects and reptiles he sometimes lives on insects and reptiles. Nor is he satisfied even with this abundant variety, but must go to the mineral kingdom for salt, as a condiment before he can furnish out his meal.

NATIONS LIVING WHOLLY UPON VEGETABLE FOOD.

The variety of alimentary substances used not only by individuals, but among whole nations, are prodigiously diversified, and climate seems to have some effect in producing the diversity of taste, though it must in a great measure depend upon the natural productions of particular countries, their religion, and their commercial intercourse.

A vegetable diet seems suitable to the hot countries under the Equator, and we accordingly find nations there, who have completely adopted it, and who abstain so much the more from all animal food, in as much as it is an article of their religious faith.

Potatoes, chesnuts, and the leguminous and cereal seeds, satisfy the want of the Alpine peasant, and numerous tribes solely feed on vegetables and water. In the most remote antiquity, we read of whole nations in Africa, and of the Indian priests, who lived entirely on vegetable substances. Some wandering Moors subsist almost entirely on gum senegal.

NATIONS LIVING WHOLLY ON ANIMAL FOOD.

The nations which live on animal food are very numerous.

The Ethiopeans, Scythians, and Arabians, ate nothing but flesh.

The miserable inhabitants of New Holland lived wholly on fish when that country was first discovered, and other tribes on the Arabian and Persian gulph.

In the Faro islands, in Iceland and Greenland, the food arises from the same source.

The shepherds in the province of Caracas, on the Oronoko, live wholly on flesh. The Tartars in Asia, and some savage nations in North America, live on raw and half putrid flesh, and some barbarous tribes eat their meat raw.

It appears to be the effect of climate and religion that makes the Hindoo adopt vegetable rather than animal food; it is the effect of natural production that makes the Greenlander relish whale-blubber and train-oil. It is to one or other of these causes that we must refer all such diversity of national tastes, though it would be difficult in many cases to separate the influence of each. We see the Englishman enjoying his under-done roast beef and his plum-pudding; the Scotsman his hodge-podge and his haggis; the Frenchman his ragouts, omlets, and fricandeaus; the German his sour-crout, sausages, and smoaked hams, the Italian his maccaroni; and the Tartar his horse-flesh.[6] “De gustibus non est disputandum.”—There is no disputing about tastes. They are too many, and too various, to be objects of rational discussion.