The Physiology of Taste; Or, Transcendental GastronomyBrillat-Savarin
Philosophy
The Physiology of Taste; Or, Transcendental Gastronomy
Brillat-Savarin
Gastronomy
The best truffles of France come from Perigord, and upper
Provence. About the month of January they have their highest
perfume.
Those from Bugey also have a high flavor, but can not be
preserved.
Those of Burgundy and Dauphiny are of inferior quality. They are
hard, and are deficient in farinacious matter. Thus, there are
many kinds of truffles.
To find truffles, dogs and hogs are used, that have been trained
to the purpose. There are men, however, with such practised eyes
that by the inspection of the soil they can say whether it
contains truffles or not, and what is their quality.
ARE TRUFFLES INDIGESTIBLES?
We have only to ascertain if the truffle be indigestible or not.
We say no.
This decision is ex cathedra, and well sustained.
1. By the nature of the substance. The truffle is easily
masticated, is light, and has nothing hard nor cartilaginous in
its composition.
2. During our observations for fifty years, we have never known
any indigestion to result from truffles. [Footnote: The translator
has known several such indigestions. He once nearly became a
martyr to a galatine de Perdrix truffee, at the restaurant of the
late M. Dandurand.]
3. The attestation of the most eminent of the faculty of Paris, a
city eminently gourmande and trufflivorous, sustains this idea.
4. From the daily conduct of the doctors of the law, who, caeteris
paribus, consume more truffles than any other class of citizens.
Doctor Malonet used to eat enough to give an elephant the
indigestion. He however lived to be eighty-six.
We may therefore look on it as certain, that the truffle is a food
healthy as it is agreeable, and that when taken in moderation it
passes through the system as a letter does through the post
office.
One may easily be indisposed after a great dinner, where other
things than truffles have been eaten; such accidents, however,
only happen to those who, after the first service, were already
stuffed like canons, and who failed in the second, leaving the
luxuries offered them untouched.
This is not then the fault of truffles, and we may be sure they
had swallowed so many glasses of pure water or eaten the same
number of potatoes.
Let us conclude by a circumstance which shows how easily we may be
mistaken without careful observation.
One day I invited Mr. S--, a very pleasant old man, to dine with
me. He was also a gourmand of the highest grade. Either because I
knew his tastes, or to satisfy all my guests that I wished to make
them happy, I was not sparing in truffles, and they appeared under
the egis of young turkeys most carefully stuffed.
Mr. S--ate with energy, and as I knew he could not injure himself
I left him alone, persuading him not to hurry himself because no
one would attack the property he had acquired.
All passed off very well, and we separated at a very late hour.
When we reached home, however, Mr. S-- was attacked by a violent
cholic, a disposition to vomit, convulsive cramp, and general
indisposition.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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