The Physiology of Taste; Or, Transcendental GastronomyBrillat-Savarin
Philosophy
The Physiology of Taste; Or, Transcendental Gastronomy
Brillat-Savarin
Gastronomy
In these two walks the most praiseworthy efforts have been made
always as minute as possible, and the curious have followed either
the human body or the food which invigorates it, first to their
secondary principles, and then to their elements, beyond which we
have not been permitted to penetrate.
Here I intended to have given a little treatise on alimentary
chemistry, and to tell my readers, to how many thousands of
hydrogen, carbon, etc., may be reduced the dishes that sustain us.
I did not do so, however, because I remembered I would only have
to copy many excellent treatises on chemistry in the hands of
every body. I feared, too, that I would relapse into very barren
details, and limited myself to a very reasonable nomenclature,
which will only require the explanation of a small number of very
usual terms.
OSMAZOME.
The greatest service chemistry has rendered to alimentary science,
is the discovery of osmazome, or rather the determination of what
it was.
Osmazome is the purely sapid portion of flesh soluble in cold
water, and separated from the extractive portion which is only
soluble in boiling water.
Osmazome is the most meritorious ingredient of all good soups.
This portion of the animal forms the red portion of flesh, and the
solid parts of roasts. It gives game and venison its peculiar
flavor.
Osmazome is most abundant in grown animals which have red or black
hair; it is scarcely found at all in the lamb, sucking pig,
chicken, and the white meat of the largest fowls. For this reason
true connoisseurs always prefer the second joint; instinct with
them was the precursor of science.
Thus a knowledge of the existence of osmazome, caused so many
cooks to be dismissed, who insisted on always throwing away the
first bouillon made from meat. This made the reputation of the
soupe des primes, and induced the canon Chevrier to invent his
locked kettles. The Abbe Chevrier was the person who never would
eat until Friday, lobsters that had not been cooked on the
previous Sunday, and every intervening day placed on the fire with
the addition of fresh butter.
To make use of this subject, though yet unknown, was introduced
the maxim, that to make good bouillon the kettle should only
smile.
Osmazome, discovered after having been so long the delight of our
fathers, may be compared to alcohol, which made whole generations
drunk before it was simply exhibited by distillation.
PRINCIPLE OF ALIMENTS.
The fibre is what composes the tissue of the meat, and what is
apparent after the juices have been extracted. The fibres resist
boiling water, and preserve their form, though stripped of a
portion of their wrappings. To carve meat properly the fibres
should be cut at right angles, or nearly so, with the blade of the
knife. Meat thus carved looks better, tastes better, and is more
easily chewed.
The bones are composed principally of gelatine and the phosphate
of lime.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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