The Physiology of Taste; Or, Transcendental GastronomyBrillat-Savarin
Philosophy
The Physiology of Taste; Or, Transcendental Gastronomy
Brillat-Savarin
Gastronomy
The idea was successful, and it was ascertained that sugar was
found in the whole vegetable kingdom; that it existed in the
grape, chestnut, potato, and in the beet especially.
This last plant became an object of the greatest culture, and many
experiments proved that in this respect, the old world could do
without the new. France was covered with manufactories, which
worked with different success, and the manufacture of sugar became
naturalized; the art was a new one which may any day be recalled.
Among the various manufactories, the most prominent was that
established at Passy, near Paris, by Mr. Benjamin Delassert, a
citizen, the name of whom is always connected with the good and
useful.
By means of a series of extensive operations, he got rid of all
that was doubtful in the practice, and made no mystery of his plan
of procedure, even to those who were his rivals. He was visited by
the head of the government, and was ordered to furnish all that
was needed at the Tuilleries.
New circumstances, the restoration of peace, having again reduced
colonial sugar to a lower price, the French manufacturers lost the
advantages they had gained. Many, however, yet prosper, and
Delassert makes some thousands every year. This also enables him
to preserve his processes until the time comes when they may again
he useful. [Footnote: We may add, that at the session for the
general encouragement of national industry, a medal was ordered to
be presented to M. Crespel, a manufacturer of arrus, who
manufactures every year one hundred and fifty thousand pounds of
beet sugar, which he sells at a profit, even--when Colonial sugar
is 2 francs 50 centimes the kilogramme. The reason is, that the
refuse is used for distillation, and subsequently fed out to
cattle.]
When beet sugar was in the market, party men, up-starts and fools,
took it into their heads that its flavor was unpleasant, and some
even said it was unhealthy.
Many experiments have proved the contrary, and the Count de
Chaptal, in his excellent book, Chemistry Applied to Agriculture,"
(vol. ii. page 13,) says:
"Sugars obtained from various plants, says a celebrated chemist,
are in fact of the same nature, and have no intrinsic difference
when they are equally pure. Taste, crystalization, color, weight,
are absolutely identical, and the most acute observer cannot
distinguish the one from the other."
An idea of the force of prejudice is afforded by the fact, that
out of one hundred British subjects, taken at random, not ten
believe in the possibility of obtaining sugar from the beet.
USES OF SUGAR.
Sugar was introduced by the apothecaries. With them it was a most
important article, for when a person was greatly in want of any
article, there was a proverb, "Like an apothecary without sugar."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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