A Chocolate Life.

I spent last evening at a tasting session arranged for food bloggers by Brisbane providor Black Pearl Epicure. We began with tastings of various olive oils, vinegars (including a 20 year old Balsamic), and several salts. We went on to chocolate and other things, and ended with the best Roquefort cheese I have ever eaten. Dinner was somewhere in there too.

Needless to say, it was such a fine evening (following upon a busy day) that I belatedly realised that, once again, I have not polished the intended story for the day. So, once again, I give you a tweaked version of a previous article, written for a bakery magazine.

Life without chocolate is barely imaginable for most of us, but that was the unhappy position of Europeans before they discovered the New World at the end of the fifteenth century. Once they had found it however, they certainly added value to the product over the next few centuries, for the chocolate that the ancient peoples of Central and South America had been consuming for millennia was nothing like the chocolate we enjoy today.

The first Europeans to see cacao beans were Christopher Columbus and some of his crew in 1502. They had no idea what a culinary treasure they dismissed as a boatload of some sort of primitive native “money” - although they were partially correct as the beans were indeed used as currency at that time. A subsequent explorer, Hernando de Oviedo y Valdez, recorded their purchasing power in 1513: for example - four beans would buy a rabbit, eight to ten the services of a prostitute, and one hundred would get you a slave.

The beans were also, of course, made into a drink- but quite a different one from hot chocolate as we know it now. It was a bitter, unsweetened beverage flavoured with all sorts of different spices – chilli, black pepper, vanilla, achiote etc - and whipped with a wooden tool, or poured from a great height to make it frothy. It was a luxury drink for the elite, and a strength-giving potion for warriors - but again, the early explorers initially viewed it as a curiosity, and were quite unimpressed with it themselves as a drink – one soldier saying “Chocoatl [sic] is fit to be thrown to the pigs”.

Eventually the value of the beans was gradually realised by the Spanish, who took it home with them. One day, an unknown someone in Spain had the brilliant idea of adding sugar to it, and chocolate never looked back. Nevertheless, it was still a hundred years before it became well known and loved in the rest of Europe, and a couple of hundred more before it evolved into a piece of solid confectionary.

Chocolate – as a sweet drink – was, like many newly introduced “foreign” foods, at first viewed with varying degrees of scepticism, suspicion, or enthusiasm. The French initially considered it “a barbarous product and noxious drug”, but it quickly became fashionable when it got royal approval, and Samuel Pepys was drinking it fairly regularly for his hangovers in the flourishing chocolate shops of London in the 1660’s.

The medicinal value of every foodstuff was an accepted tenet of the time, and although physicians did not always agree on the exact properties of the chocolate drink, it was generally thought to be somewhat of an aphrodisiac. It was also a bonus that it helped make people fat, for fat was equated with health in a society where thin meant starvation or sickness.

The confection made of Cacao called Chocolate or Chocoletto which may be had in diverse places in London, at reasonable rates, is of wonderful efficacy for the procreation of children, for it not only vehemently incites to Venus, but causes conception in women . . . and besides that it preserves health, for it makes such as take it often to become fat and corpulent, fair and amiable. [William Coles, 1657].

At the end of the seventeenth century Sir Hans Sloane, whose bequest gave us the British Museum, is credited with adding milk to chocolate to improve its value as an invalid food. It was still a drink however, not a solid, and required some heavy work pounding either the actual beans or pre-prepared “cake” in a mortar. There were two more steps needed before chocolate bars could happen. In 1828, Conrad van Houten devised a process we now call “dutching” – removing about half the fat from the beans, and treating the residue with alkali, resulting in a cocoa powder which mixed easily with water. Then, in 1847, Joseph Fry in England found a way of mixing some of the fat back into the “dutched” cocoa, adding sugar, and pressing the paste into moulds. It seems that the initial aim was still to produce an easier base for making chocolate drinks, but it was quickly discovered that the bars were very pleasant indeed to eat as they were. The final refinements came in the 1870’s with the development of milk chocolate, and then the “conching” process which produces the ultra-smooth texture and mouth-feel that is so much part of chocolate’s appeal.

Now, chocolate is cheap and easily available, and we can afford to use it in many dishes, but this is a relatively new development in culinary history. A couple of the earliest recipes (perhaps the earliest) using it as an ingredient are in the extensive sweet and confectionary section of The Court and Country Cook, by a French celebrity chef called Francois Massialot, first published in 1691. One is for a chocolate custard, and the other - most interestingly - is for a duck dish!

Chocolate Cream.
Take a Quart of Milk with a quarter of a Pound of Sugar, and boil them together for a quarter of an Hour: Then put one beaten Yolk of an Egg into the Cream, and let it have three or four Walms*: Take it off from the Fire, and mix it with some Chocolate, till the Cream has assum’d its colour. Afterwards you may give it three or four Walms more upon the Fire, and having strain’d it through a Sieve, dress it at pleasure.

*A ‘walm’ is a brief boiling-up.

In the following recipe from 1710 for what sounds like chocolate meringues, the chocolate would have been in the form of the compressed cake of pounded beans.


Chocolate-Biskets.
Having scrap’d a little Chocolate upon the White of an Egg, to give it a Tincture, work it up with Powder-Sugar, and the rest of the Ingredients, to a pliable Paste: Then dress your Biskets upon Sheets of Paper, and set them in the Campagne-Oven, to be bak’d with a gentle Fire, both on the top and underneath.

By the time Mary Abel’s book Practical Sanitary and Economic Cooking Adapted to Persons of Moderate and Small Means was published in New York in 1890, the chocolate in the recipe would probably still have been a solid cake of ground cocoa-nibs, not expensive eating chocolate. But what a fantastic idea it is for an interesting dessert!

Chocolate Soup.
¼ lb. chocolate, 2 ½ qts milk and water, sugar to taste, 1 egg yolk, a little vanilla or cinnamon.
Cook the chocolate soft in a little water, and add the rest; when boiling put in the other ingredients, and cook the beaten white of an egg in spoonfuls on the top. Serve with fried bread.

Quotation for the Day.

Chocolate is a perfect food, as wholesome as it is delicious, a beneficent restorer of exhausted power. It is the best friend of those engaged in literary pursuits.
Baron Justus von Liebig

Mock Choc.

I love the history of ‘mock’ food. I love genuine chocolate. I love really good soup. I love the crazy fact that someone, somewhere, a little over a century ago, thought that the world needed (and would be fooled by?) a recipe for ‘mock chocolate soup.’

I gave you a recipe for Chocolate Soup (from 1890) in a previous post, but one can’t have too many chocolate soup recipes (even if they are actually for custard), can one? From yesterday’s source, the simply named Soups, by S. Beaty-Pownall (London, 1904), please enjoy ….

Chocolate Soup.
Put into a pan 2 oz. or 3 oz. of best chocolate, grated or powdered, together with a stick of cinnamon or vanilla, as you choose; pour on to it a quart of new milk, sweeten to taste, bring it all to the boil, and let it cook till the chocolate is all melted and the whole is smooth; meantime, whip the yolks of four or five eggs to a stiff froth, draw the soup to the side of the stove, and when it has cooled for a few minutes, work in the eggs sharply, and pour the hot soup at once into a tureen, in which you have already placed some nice sweetened coffee rusks.


Chocolate Soup (Mock)
Brown 2 oz. of fine sifted flour in the oven till of a rich chocolate brown (be careful it does not catch or burn), then put it into a pan with a tablespoonful of sugar, a clove or two, and a piece of vanilla or cinnamon stick; pour to this a pint of new milk, boiling, then stir it all steadily till it re-boils, being careful it does not get lumpy, add in egg yolks as in the preceding recipe, and serve very hot. Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, with a little caster sugar, and drop spoonfuls of this on to the boiling soup a minute or two before serving it. This garnish may also be added to the preceding soup. Use vanilla sugar with the egg whites.

Quotation for the Day.
If any man has drunk a little too deeply from the cup of physical pleasure; if he has spent too much time at his desk that should have been spent asleep; if his fine spirits have become temporarily dulled; if he finds the air too damp, the minutes too slow, and the atmosphere too heavy to withstand; if he is obsessed by a fixed idea which bars him from any freedom of thought: if he is any of these poor creatures, we say, let him be given a good pint of amber-flavored chocolate....and marvels will be performed.
Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

Take a single ingredient ...

I have become interested recently in the evolution of ‘single ingredient’ cookery books. It was the Chocolate Parfait Amour recipe from the other day that got me thinking about the phenomenon. The source book - Cocoa and Chocolate: a short history of their production and use was published by the chocolate-making company Walter Baker and Co. in 1886 (the company that gave America ‘German Chocolate Cake’ – thanks to a typo. It should have been ‘German’s Chocolate Cake’ after the employee who developed the recipe, but that is another story.) This book must surely be one of the earliest examples of an advertising cookery book?

Numerous books of the nineteenth century contain recipe chapters – such as A Treatise on the Management of Fresh-water Fish, with a view to making them a source of profit to landed proprietors, published in 1841 by Gottlieb Boccius, which has ‘twenty three German recipes’. I do not count these however, as the recipes are not their main focus. The best I have been able to uncover so far (so many projects, so few hours in the day) are books on cooking apples (1865) and potatoes (1870), and I will give you some ideas from these books soon.

Please join in the search for early examples of this sort of cookery book – it promises to be quite good fun. I will feature them from time to time, as I (we) find them. For today, I will go again to the Baker Company’s chocolate recipe book, from which I have chosen a few interesting beverages.

Chocolate Syrup for Soda Water
Baker's chocolate (plain), four ounces; boiling water, four ounces ; water, twenty- eight ounces ; sugar, thirty ounces; extract of vanilla, one-half ounce. Cut the chocolate into small pieces, then add the boiling water, and stir briskly until the mixture forms into a thick paste, and assumes asmooth and uniform appearance; then slowly add the remainder of the water, stirring at the same time, and set aside until cold. After cooling thoroughly, a layer of solid grease, forms over the surface, which is to be carefully removed by skimming. After this is completed add the sugar, dissolved by the aid of a gentle heat, and allow the whole to come to a boil. Then strain and add the extract of vanilla. This forms a syrup which is perfect. It possesses the pure, rich flavor of the chocolate without the unpleasant taste.


Wine Chocolate.
Set half a bottle of good white wine, three ounces of chocolate, and one ounce of powdered sugar over the fire; beat the yolks of four eggs to foam, with a little wine, and add it to the chocolate as soon as it begins to simmer; stir it for a few minutes, then take it from the fire and serve. This is an excellent winter beverage.

Chocolate Wine.
Infuse in a bottle of Madeira, Marsala or raisin wine four ounces of chocolate, andsugar if required. In three or four days strain and bottle.


Quotation for the Day.

I can recommend switching to chocolate for all you addictive types. .. . Think of the advantages. … Chocolate doesn't make you stupid and clumsy. It doesn't render you incapable of operating heavy machinery. …You don't have to smuggle chocolate across the border. ...Possession, even possession with intent to sell, is perfectly legal. … and second-hand chocolate doesn't offend the people around you.
Linda Henley, American Columnist.

Enough Mace.

How often do you use mace? A reader asked about its apparent decline in popularity recently in response to the recipe of the day.

Mace is, to quote the OED “An aromatic spice consisting of the fleshy aril or covering surrounding the seed in the fruit of the nutmeg tree, Myristica fragrans, dried and used (chiefly in powdered form) to flavour savoury dishes, sauces, etc. (the kernel of the seed being the source of nutmeg).” Mace was certainly known and used in medieval Britain and Europe – but although we still use nutmeg itself, and other sweet spices such as cinnamon and cloves, methinks mace nowadays has been relegated towards the back of the mental pantry (at least in ‘English-speaking’ kitchens that is.)

I wondered just what have we lost, or mislaid, in our apparent modern neglect of mace, so set out (briefly) to find out. Historically there is no shortage of meat dishes flavoured with mace, and of course there is the inevitable fruit cake, and perhaps mulled wine, but surely there are some different ideas begging revival?
Chocolate and mace – now that sounds like a combination I could learn to love. The author of The Complete Confectioner, Pastry-Cook, and Baker, Plain and Practical (Philadelphia, 1864) gives mace double duty in the following recipe – the ‘basic’ or vanilla version of chocolate has mace, and more mace is added to the ‘mace’ version.

Cinnamon, Mace, or Clove Chocolate.
These are made in the same manner as the last* using about an ounce and a half or two ounces of either sort of spice in powder to that quantity or add a sufficiency of either of these essential oils to flavour.

*Vanilla Chocolate.
Ten pounds of prepared nuts, ten pounds of sugar, vanilla two ounces and a half, cinnamon one ounce, one drachm of mace, and two drachms of cloves, or the vanilla may be used soley. Prepare your nuts according to the directions already given**. Cut the vanilla in small bits, pound it fine with part of the sugar, and mix it with the paste, boil about one half of the sugar to the blow before you mix it to the chocolate, otherwise it will eat hard. Proceed as before, and either put it in small moulds, or divide it in tablets, which you wrap in tinfoil. This is in general termed eatable chocolate
[**the cacao nuts are pounded in a warmed mortar until they are reduced to an oily paste which is then sweetened if desired.]

And I like the next idea – clotted cream delicately flavoured with mace - which does not need a spice bag, the ‘blades’ being lacy enough to allow string to be easily threaded through for easy retrieval.

Clotted Cream
String four blades of mace on a string, put them to a gill of new milk, and six spoonfuls of rose water, simmer a few minutes, then by degrees stir this liquor, strained into the yolks of two new eggs well beaten, stir the whole into a quart of good cream, set it over the fire and stir till hot but not boiling, pour it into a deep dish and let it stand four and twenty hours, serve it in a cream dish; to eat with fruit some persons prefer it without any taste but cream, in which case use a quart of new milk, or do it like the Devonshire cream scalded; when done enough a round mark will appear on the surface of the cream the size of the bottom of the pan it is done in, which in the country they call the ring, and when that is seen remove the pan from the fire.
The Illustrated London Cookery Book, Frederick Bishop (1852)

And finally, an interesting mac-based sauce which just might ring the changes for your next roast turkey or chicken.


Sauce for Turkey or Chicken.
Boil a spoonful of the best mace very tender, and also the liver of the turkey, but not too much which would make it hard; pound the mace with a few drops of the liquor to a very fine pulp; then pound the liver, and put about half of it to the mace, with pepper, salt, and the yolk of an egg boiled hard, and then dissolved; to this add by degrees the liquor that drains from the turkey, or some other good gravy. Put these liquors to the pulp, and boil them some time; then take half a pint of oysters and boil them but a little, and lastly, put in white wine, and butter wrapped in a little flour. Let it boil but a little, lest the wine make the oysters hard; and just at last scald four spoonfuls of good cream, and add, with a little lemon juice, or pickled mushrooms will do better.
The Lady’s Own Cookery Book … by Lady Charlotted Campbell Bury (1844)


Quotation for the Day.
Once you get a spice in your home, you have it forever. Women never throw out spices. The Egyptians were buried with their spices. I know which one I'm taking with me when I go.
Erma Bombeck.

From Acorns to Chocolate.

Sometimes a historic trail leads off to somewhere quite different from where you start – which is a large part of the fun of course. I was exploring the use of acorns as food (boiled, in bread, as subsitute coffee), and found myself browsing an interesting bookcalled Waste Products and Undeveloped Substances, or, Hints for Enterprise in Neglected Fields, published by Peter Lund Simmonds in 1862. He describes the historic use of the acorn, and then says:

“ … In Turkey acorns are buried for some time in the earth by which the bitterness is destroyed They are then dried and toasted. Their powder with sugar and aromatics constitutes the palamoud of the Turks and racahout of the Arabs an alimentary substance readily digestible and very much esteemed.”

So, now I had two unfamiliar foods to investigate. Bear in mind, that as I do not speak Turkish or Arabic, what I ended up with was the Eurocentric view of these items. I would love some response from those really in the know! Anyway, I was doubly delighted to find references in, of all things, The Druggist's General Receipt Book , published in London in 1850.

We don’t generally think of pharmacopoeia as sources of recipes. Remedies, maybe, for gruel or beef tea or gruesome laxatives and other foods for invalids, but not delicious-sounding delicacies. Here is the The Druggist's General Receipt Book’s intrepretation of the “Turkish” and “Arabic” dishes of palamoud and racahout as fortifying drinks based on chocolate. Note that “by chocolate is meant the cacao beans roasted and pulverized to powder”, not the “dutched” and often sweetened chocolate powder of today.


Racahout Des Arabes
1 oz chocolate powder
3 oz rice flour
9 oz sugar
3 oz potato arrow-root
1 dr. vanilla (pulverized with part of sugar).
This is professedly a preparation of acorns (perhaps those of the Quercus ballotta, which are naturally sweet, or of other kinds deprived of their bitterness by
being buried in the earth)


Palamoud
1 oz chocolate
4 oz rice flour
4 oz potato arrow-root
1 dr. red sanders in fine powder

So, here we are with another example of the “everthing old is new again” – chocolate (the dark variety, in mini-moderation) now apparently being suspected of having medicinal value.

Quotation for the Day.

Chocolate is not only a pleasant of taste, but it is also a veritable balm of the mouth, for the maintaining of all glands and humours in a good state of health. Thus it is, that all who drink it, possess a sweet breath.
Stephani Blancardi (1650-1702), Italian Physician.

Chocolate, the Old-Fashioned Way.

June 16 ...

This day in 1657, so all the books say, was the day that Chocolate was first advertised in England. The Publick Advertiser announced:

“In Bishopsgate St, in Queen's Head Alley, at a Frenchman's house, is an excellent West Indian drink called chocolate to be sold, where you may have it ready at any time and also made at reasonable rates.”

Chocolate was a very new and exotic treat in England at this time, but within a few decades it was easily available (for those who could afford it) in London’s famous coffee houses. At this time chocolate was a drink – ‘eating’ chocolate was still two centuries away. It was made by laboriously pounding and sifting the cacao beans to a fine powder from which compressed ‘cakes’ or rolls were made, which were then grated up when a drink was needed. The variety of flavoured chocolate drinks in trendy modern shops – such as hazelnut, cinnamon, mocha, vanilla etc – are not a new idea, they are a rediscovery of a very old one. Right from the outset, chocolate was improved with added flavours.

Here is the seventeenth century method of making yourself a chocolate drink, taken from a small book written in 1695.

To make Chocolate Cakes and Rowles.
Take Cocoa Nutts [i.e Cacao Beans], and dry them gently in an Iron pan, or pot, and peel off the husks, then powder them very small, so that they may be sifted through a fine searce; then to every pound of the said powder add seven ounces of fine white sugar, half an ounce of Nutmegs, one Ounce of Cinamon, Ambergreece and Musk each four Grains, but these two may be omitted, unless it be for extraordinary use.

To Make Chocolate.
Take of Milk one Pint, and of Water half as much, and boil it a while over a gentle Fire; then grate the quantity of one Ounce of the best Chocolate [i.e the cake, as above], and put therein; then take a small quantity of the Liquor out, and beat with six Eggs; and when it is well beat, pour it into the whole quantity of Liquor, and let it boil half an Hour gently, stirring often with your Mollinet; then take it off the Fire, and set it by the Fire to keep hot, and when you serve it up, stir it well with your Mollinet. If you Toast a thin slice of white Bread, and put therein, it will eat extraordinary well.

Tomorrow’s Story …

Mangled Menus.

Quotation for the Day …

Listen, then: let any man who shall have drunk too deeply of the cup of pleasure, or given to work too many of the hours which should belong to sleep; who shall find the accustomed polish of his wit turned to dullness, or be tortured by a fixed idea which robs him of all liberty of thought; let all such, we say, administer to themselves a good pint of ambered chocolate . . . and they will see marvels. Brillat-Savarin.

The Second Day of Christmas.

December 27 …

“On the second day of Christmas, my true love sent to me … two turtle doves …”

There seems to be something very Un-PC about the idea of eating turtle doves, even if they are glorified pigeons – which are certainly very OK to eat. Apart from Mrs. Chiang-Kai Shek, who attributed her good health to the regular eating of a restorative soup made from white doves, I can find hardly a reference to them appearing on the table. Perhaps we are reluctant to eat them because we have appropriated the species to our coo-ing love-bird selves?

Turtle doves coo over ….. bird seed I suppose? Human turtle doves gift each other … chocolate! Chocolate may well be the most coo-ed over food for all humans, lovers or not, so on this second day of Christmas we are going to have TWO chocolate tarts!

Chocolate, for most of its life, has been a beverage. It was introduced to Europe in the mid-sixteenth century by the Spaniards, who came across its use by the Aztecs (who had gotten it from the earlier Maya who got it from the even earlier Olmecs). It was a spicy drink back then – with vanilla and chilli and all sorts of other ingredients added, but was not sweet. It appears that it was the Spanish who added the sugar, and once that was done, its success in Europe was certain. It took several technological developments in the nineteenth century to make it the solid eatable confectionary that we know today.

In between chocolate as a bitter, spicy drink and chocolate as a sweet, smooth, biteable confection, chefs and cooks discovered its value as a cooking ingredient. It was usually partly processed into solid cakes of coarse “cocoa” which had to be grated or pounded up before use. The first I have been able to find are in François Massialot’s Le nouveau cuisinier royal et bourgeois, ou cuisinier moderne (first ed. 1691) there are two recipes in which chocolate is an ingredient: in a sauce for “sea-duck”, and in a sweet custard. (This recipe is given in an earlier story on chocolate history).

The earliest known written version of our theme song is from 1780, so I am going to give you a recipe from that year. It is a chocolate cream recipe from Susanna Kellet’s book A complete collection of cookery receipts, (consisting of near four hundred,) which have been taught upwards of fifty years…. With a little adaptation it would make a fine filling for those chocolate tart shells that I am sure you can whip up in a jiffy.

Chocolate Cream.
Scrape two ounces of chocolate in a pint of cream, set it on, and let it just come a boil; then mill it up, put in a little perfume, and steep it in rose water. Sweeten to your taste and put in a china dish, and lay froth upon it.

“On the second day of Christmas, my good friend sent to me
Two chocolate tarts
And a partridge in a pear tree.”

Tomorrow’s Story …

The Third Day of Christmas.

Quotation for the Day …

If I were a headmaster, I would get rid of the history teacher and get a chocolate teacher instead and my pupils would study a subject that affected all of them. Roald Dahl.

A side-effect of chocolate.

October 25^th

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de Sévigné was a seventeenth century French aristocrat. For many years she kept up a prolific correspondence with her married daughter, and her letters are a wonderfully witty glimpse into life at the top of the food chain at that time and in that place.

She frequently mentions chocolate in her letters of the early 1670’s when it was very new, very expensive, and very fashionable. Like most newly introduced foods, its qualities were the subject of much debate: was it suitable for periods of fasting, being a mere drink? Did it have medicinal value? Was it addictive? Was it an aphrodisiac?

On this day in 1671 Mme. de Sévigné delivered a juicy piece of gossip disguised as advice to her daughter, who was pregnant at the time:

" … the marquise de Coëtlogon took so much chocolate, being pregnant last year, that she was brought to bed of a little boy who was as black as the devil who died."

Mme. de Sévigné did not need to mention to her daughter that one of the other fashionable household items at the time was a handsome, black, Moorish servingman. It seems that the mother of the unfortunate infant did indeed have one of these fashion accessories, and part of his job description was to take her her evening chocolate drink. But I stoop to repeat gossip myself now, which is not seemly at this distance of centuries.

If France at the time was obsessed with anything Mexican and more-ish or manly and Moorish (Ouch! Sorry, couldn't resist that one), over in England the fashion was for anything French, including of course, the latest dishes.

Today therefore, I give you a recipe from a book with the unexpurgated title of The English and French cook describing the best and newest ways of ordering and dressing all sorts of flesh, fish and fowl, whether boiled, baked, stewed, roasted, broiled, frigassied, fryed, souc'd, marrinated, or pickled; with their proper sauces and garnishes: together with all manner of the most approved soops and potages used, either in England or France. By T. P. J. P. R. C. N. B. and several other approved cooks of London and Westminster. 1674.

Publishers don’t do book titles like that anymore, alas, even for books by approved cooks.

Lemonade a-la-mode de France.
The French make a Lemonade several ways, sometimes by taking two handfuls of Jalsomine [jasmine], and infuse it in a pottle of Water, letting it steep twelve hours, to every quart of Water put six ounces of Sugar: you may make it of Orange-flowers or Gilliflower after the same manner. Or take some Lemons, cut themand take out the juyce, then put it in Water as aforesaid; then pare another Lemon, and cut it in slices, put it among the juyce with a due proportion of Sugar.

Tomorrow’s Story …

Puckering up with Persimmons.

Quotation for the Day ...

Dont wreck a sublime chocolate experience by feeling guilty. Chocolate isn't like pre-marital sex. It will not make you pregnant. And it always feels good. Laura Brody. Growing up on the Chocolate Diet.

A Bite of Chocolate.

Today, September 19^th …

George Cadbury was born on this day in 1839. He was the son of John Cadbury, a Quaker who opened a modest little grocery store in Birmingham in 1824, from which he advertised and sold “'Cocoa Nibs', prepared by himself, an article affording a most nutritious beverage for breakfast.” John could hardly have realised in 1824 how spectacularly serendipitous his timing was. Huge developments in chocolate manufacture were just on the horizon.

The ancient Olmec civilisation of Central America are now credited with the cultivation of the cacao tree somewhere between 2 ½ and 3 ½ thousand years ago. The knowledge was bequeathed to the subsequent Maya and Aztec civilisations, and ultimately via the Spanish conquerors of the very early sixteenth century, it found its way to Europe. First and foremost, chocolate was a beverage, and it remained this for hundreds of years after its enthusiastic adoption by Europeans. Several steps were necessary before it developed into the chocolate bar as we know it today – and these happened all of a rush in the first half of the nineteenth century, which is why John Cadbury proved to be a man with the right ideas, in the right place, at the very right time.

A few years after John opened his shop, a man called Coenraad Van Houten in Amsterdam patented an process that resulted in a superior form of chocolate powder – superior in that the fat content was reduced by removing the some of the cocoa butter (making the ‘cakes’ easier to pulverize), and it was also less bitter and easier to dissolve (by virtue of treatment with alkaline salts). The process became known as ‘dutching’.

In 1847, another Quaker called Joseph Fry (great-grandson and name-sake of the original founder of the company) made another giant leap towards the development of eatable chocolate. He mixed some of the cocoa fat back into the ‘dutched’ cocoa powder to make a paste that could be pressed into a mould. The aim was apparently still to make a cake which was then to be used to make a drink, but it did not take long for the public to cotton onto the fact that this cake was pretty good to eat as it was.

The Cadbury family stayed firmly on the chocolate manufacturing bandwagon, and the first prettily boxed chocolates were turned out in 1868. There was a final development before chocolate perfection could be achieved. In 1879 Rudolphe Lindt invented what became known as the conching machine (because of its shell-shape), which gave chocolate the superb mouth-feel that we associate with superior chocolate today.

Chocolate does not have to be eaten out of hand of course. It is still a worthy ingredient in cooking. Here is an early eighteen century idea from the English translation of a famous French cookbook.

A Sea-duck with Chocolate in a Ragoo.
Having pick’t, cleans’d and drawn your Sea-duck, as before, let it be wash’d, broile’d a little while upon the Coals, and afterwards put in a Pot; seasoning it with Pepper, Salt, Bay-leaves and a Faggot of Herbs. Then a little Chocolate is to be made and added thereto; preparing a the same time a Ragoo with Capons-livers, Morilles, Mousserons, common Mushrooms, Truffles, and a quarter of a hundred of Chestnuts. When the Sea-duck is ready dress’d in its proper Dish, pour your Ragoo upon it; garnish it with what you please, and let it be serv’d up to Table.
[Court and Country Cook, by Francois Massialot (a.k.a Vincent La Chapelle); 1702]

Tomorrow’s Story …

Meat From The Jungle.

Quotation for the Day …

Chocolate, of course, is the stuff of which fantasies are made. Rich, dark, velvety-smooth fantasies that envelop the senses and stir the passions. Chocolate is madness; chocolate is delight. Judith Olney.

No honey for the children.

Today, September 18^th …

On this day in 1942, the Reich Minister for Nutrition and Agriculture, issued a Decree Concerning Food Supply for Jews. This is an extract from it:

Decree Concerning Food Supply for Jews.

Jews will no longer receive the following foods … meat, meat products, eggs, wheat products (cake, white bread, wheat rolls, wheat flour, etc) whole milk fresh skimmed milk, as well as such foods are distributed not on food ration cards issued uniformly throughout the Reich but on local supply certificates or by special announcement of the nutrition offices on extra coupons of the food cards. Jewish children and young people over 10 years of age will receive the bread ration of the normal consumer. Jewish children and young people over 6 years of age will receive the fat ration of the normal consumer, no honey substitute and no cocoa powder, and they will not receive the supplement of marmalade accorded the age classes of 6 to 14 years. Jewish children up to 6 years receive ½ liter of fresh skimmed milk daily.

Accordingly no meat, egg or milk cards and no local supply certificates shall be issued to Jews. Jewish children and young people over 10 years of age will receive the bread cards and those over 6 years of age the fat cards of the normal consumer. The bread cards issued to Jews will entitle them to rye flour products only. Jewish children under 6 years of age shall be issued the supply certificate for fresh skimmed milk. "Good for ½ liter daily" shall be noted on it.

For the purchase of non-rationed food the Jews are not subject to restrictions as long as these products are available to the Aryan population in sufficient quantities. Ration-free foods which are distributed only from time to time and in limited quantities, such as vegetable and herring salad, fish paste, etc., are not to be given to Jews. The nutrition offices are authorized to permit Jews to purchase turnips, plain kind of cabbage etc.

From amidst this whole, awful list, for some reason I cant explain, the most poignant image for me was the idea of little children without “honey substitute”. Not “no honey” - not even "honey substitute”. I don’t even know what constitutes a honey substitute. Do you? In a Quotation for the Day in a previous post, I used a comment by Judith Olney, and it bears repeating here:

“Once in a young lifetime one should be allowed to have as much sweetness as one can possibly want and hold.”

In recognition of a whole generation of little children who never had an opportunity to experience such a moment of sweetness, here is a recipe from an English newspaper of 1942 – a time when, in England, due to sugar rationing, honey was often used as a substitute.

Honey Chocolate.
Private bee-keepers may be glad of the following recipe for home-made honey chocolate:
¼ lb honey, ¼ lb sugar, three tablespoonsful cocoa, ½ lb chopped home-grown nuts (hazel, cob, walnut &c.), three tablespoonsful stale plain cake crumbs. Put the honey and sugar in a saucepan over very low heat and allow the sugar to dissolve. Boil up, stir in the cake crumbs and cocoa, heating until smooth, add the chopped nuts and mix well. Spread on greased flat tin, leave to dry, cut into squares.

Tomorrow’s Story …

A Bite of Chocolate.

Quotation for the Day …

"Bee vomit," my brother said once, "that's all honey is," so that I could not put my tongue to its jellied flame without tasting regurgitated blossoms." Rita Dove 'In the Old Neighbourhood."

Chocolate for Health.

Today, March 20th …

The scientific name for the tree that gives us chocolate is Theobroma cacao, which roughly, but entirely appropriately translates as ‘food of the gods’. The name was given by ‘the father of modern taxonomy’ Carl von Linné in 1737, but he wasn’t the first to honour its divine taste by suggesting an especially divine origin. He may have been familiar with the work of a Parisian physician called Joseph Bachot, whose medical treatise published on this day in 1684 suggested that cacao could have been, or should have been the food of the gods, rather than nectar or ambrosia.

Chocolate has certainly inspired both more hyperbole and true passion than any other food, so I am ashamed to admit that this blog has not paid it sufficient homage to it to date. In honour of the medical man who first went public with his passion for it, we will address this omission by considering the long history of its use for medicinal reasons.

Historically, newly discovered foods were often suspected of causing disease or promoting undesirable behaviour. In the case of the potato, it was believed it caused leprosy, which did seem to slow down its acceptance somewhat. In the case of chocolate, potential consumers were warned by a series of clerics and physicians that it might ‘incite to venery’. It does of course - otherwise it would be a waste of money on Valentine’s Day – and not surprisingly the campaign was a resounding failure and Europeans adopted this gift from the New World with astonishing speed.

Historically new foods were often used initially for medicinal purposes until they became commoner - therefore cheaper and less mysterious - whereupon they were adapted for pleasurable ingestion. This was certainly true for chocolate, which seems set to have a second popularity as a remedy if we are to believe some recent studies. It seems unlikely that it will ever be as widely prescribed – or as popular via some routes of administration as described in 1898 in King's American Dispensatory.

Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.
CHOCOLATE, when scraped into a coarse powder, and boiled in milk, or milk and water, is much used as an occasional substitute for coffee, and for a drink at meals. It is a very useful nutritive article of diet for invalids, persons convalescing from acute diseases, and others with whom its oily constituent does not disagree, as is apt to be the case with dyspeptics.
BUTTER OF CACAO is a bland article, rather agreeable to the taste, and highly nutritious; it has been used as a substitute for, or an alternate with, cod-liver oil, and as an article of diet during the last days of pregnancy. It has also been employed in the formation of suppositories and pessaries, for rectal, vaginal, and other difficulties (see Suppositories). It likewise enters into preparations for rough or chafed skin, chapped lips, sore nipples, various cosmetics, pomatums, and fancy soaps; and has also been used for coating pills.
Theobromine when absorbed acts powerfully as a diuretic, and has a stimulant or exciting action which is not possessed by chocolate itself. It is, however, quite difficult of absorption, and is without effect upon the heart and circulation. It enters into the compound known as Diuretin, which, in certain conditions, is an active diuretic.

Chocolate suppositories? I don’t think so!

Here, from Charles Ranhofer’s The Epicurean (1894), is a lovely light Chocolate Souffle, just the thing if you are feeling a little poorly. Take orally, as required.

Soufflé au Chocolat.
Melt in a saucepan at the oven door, in a little tepid water, four ounces of grated chocolate; remove and pour it into a bowl to smooth nicely; mix into it five or six spoonfuls of vanilla sugar, beating it in vigorously, then add four or five spoonfuls of the following preparation: Place in a tureen two tablespoonfuls of flour, a pinch of arrowroot, two tablespoonfuls of sugar and a little salt; dilute with half a gill of milk; strain into a saucepan and add two tablespoonfuls of melted butter and a little vanilla; stir on the fire until it boils and when smooth reduce till it is consistent and detaches from the pan; take out the vanilla and let partly cool. Add eight raw egg-yolks, two ounces of melted butter, four beaten whites and three spoonfuls of whipped cream. When all these ingredients are well incorporated pour the preparation into one or two soufflé pans without filling them too high. Set the pan on a small baking sheet and bake the soufflés in a slack oven from twenty to twenty-five minutes.

Tomorrow’s Story …

To the Sugar Camp

This Day Last Year...

Breaking rationing rules was just not British in 1940.

Quotation for the Day …

The confection made of Cacao called Chocolate or Chocoletto which may be had in diverse places in London, at reasonable rates, is of wonderful efficacy for the procreation of children : for it not only vehemently incites to Venus, but causes conception in women . . . and besides that it preserves health, for it makes such as take it often to become fat and corpulent, fair and amiable. William Coles, “Adam in Eden” (1657)

Cocoa in the Country.

Today, January 8th …

The very first issue of Country Life, that most British of British magazines was launched on this day in 1897. It seems that every country sees its rural life as its real life, its essence, and perhaps it is – even if hardly anyone lives it any more. Country Life is now well-known for its cover pictures of aristocratic homes or aristocratic ‘girls in pearls’, but the first issue (which cost sixpence) had several display advertisements, including one for Cadbury’s Cocoa.

The history of chocolate contains every plot device known to fiction-writers – almost as many as does the history of coffee, and too many for one day. We will save the botanical, linguistic, economic, political, imperial, medicinal, mythological and scientific stories for other times, and today enjoy the religious experience of chocolate (as well as the rural), for a reason which will become clear.

Chocolate originated in Central America, and our words ‘chocolate’ and ‘cacao’ have their origins in the languages of the ancient people of that region, for whom it certainly played spiritual and celebratory role. Eventually, thanks to the Spanish invasion/colonisation of the region, cacao beans made their way to Europe.

The first ‘improvement’ made by the Europeans to the spicy, sometimes bitter beverage was the addition of sugar, and the credit for this idea is occasionally attributed to the Franciscan Bishop of Mexico, Juan de Zumarrogo, himself. The rich, sweet beverage became rapidly popular, and equally rapidly feared by the inevitable small number of ascetics, puritans, purists and kill-joys amongst the clergy. In fact, it spurred a vigorous debate within the Catholic Church, mainly on the issue of whether (as it was so rich and sustaining) it should be considered a beverage or a food, and therefore whether it was acceptable when fasting. A secondary issue was whether of not it incited lust (see the quotation below) - clearly also a topic of great concern to an institution that maintained celibate priests but wanted its flock to go forth and multiply (under the correct set of conditions of course).

Popes between Gregory XIII (1572-85) and Benedict XIV (1740-58) and many lesser clerics made edicts and pronouncements on the sanctity or otherwise of chocolate, but ultimately the Church lost the battle and gave up. The story of Popes and chocolate was still not quite over however, and rumour at the time had it that the death of Clement XIV in 1774 was facilitated by poisoned chocolate given by Jesuits (who have a long involvement in its history), who he had tried to suppress.

The religious connection comes full circle in our story today, as the other very useful thing about chocolate (the drink) is that it is universally liked, but not alcoholic. Developments in the chocolate industry went on apace in England in the nineteenth century thanks to two Quaker (and therefore temperance) families – the Cadburys and the Frys, who need no introduction.

As to the rural aspect to today’s story, it comes in the form of today’s recipe. From The Times in 1942, a wartime recipe for ersatz chocolate (the confection, not the drink) - very welcome during a time of sugar and sweets rationing.

Honey Chocolate.
Private bee-keepers may be glad of the following recipe for home-made honey chocolate: - ¼ lb honey, ¼ lb sugar, three tablespoonsful cocoa, ½ lb chopped home-grown nuts (hazel, cob, walnut, &c.), three tablespoonsful stale plain cake crumbs.
Put the honey and sugar in a saucepan over very low heat and allow the sugar to dissolve. Boil up, stirring in the cake crumbs and cocoa, beating until smooth, add the chopped nuts, and mix well. Spread on greased flat tin, leave to dry, cut into squares.

Tomorrow’s Story …

Asparagus and Age.

Quotation for the Day …

The confection made of Cacao called Chocolate or Chocoletto which may be had in diverse places in London, at reasonable rates, is of wonderful efficacy for the procreation of children : for it not only vehemently incites to Venus, but causes conception in women . . . and besides that it preserves health, for it makes such as take it often to become fat and corpulent, fair and amiable. William Coles, Adam in Eden (1657)

Feeding the Sick.

Today, December 14th …

It goes without saying that hospital stays should be avoided at all costs. One especially good reason is that the food is often a more unpleasant experience than the medical condition itself. ‘Invalid food’ always sounds unappetising – which is ironic as one of its main functions is to tempt the appetite - and ‘Institutional food’ is equally unappealing: put both of these together and you get hospital food.

Exceptions do prove the rule however, and if you were lucky enough to be a patient at at St. Luke’s Hospital in Chicago on this day in 1921, you could chose from this daily menu:

BREAKFAST
Fruit
Cream of Wheat Post Toasties
Little Pork Sausages
Apple Pancake
Plain Rolls Jelly
Toast
Tea Coffee Chocolate.

DINNER
Consommé Clear
Roast Domestic Duck – Dressing
Baked Apples
Mashed Potatoes
Wax Beans in Cream
Sliced Tomatoes – Dressing
Vanilla Ice Cream Wafers
Rolls
Tea Coffee Chocolate

SUPPER
Bouillon in Cups
Broiled Lamb Chops
Escalloped Potatoes
Green Peas
Pear Sauce Sugar Cookies
Toast
Tea Coffee Chocolate

There are a couple of brief nods to invalid cuisine – clear consommé and ice-cream would be suitable for delicate digestive systems for example – but the rest of the menu could easily have come from a restaurant kitchen. Roast duck? What sort of medical condition indicates a prescription of roast duck for dinner? How do I catch that disease?

It was probably not the cost or danger of hospital food that the Lydia E. Pinkham persona had in mind in the blurb for 'her' famous Medicinal Compound:

‘Any hospital experience is painful as well as costly and frequently dangerous. Many women have avoided this experience by taking Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound in time, thereby relieving the present distress and preventing the development of conditions that might require an operation.’

The success of this particular patent medicine had nothing to do with the fact that it was 40% proof - Prohibition was well underway, and ‘ladies’, would surely not have used it without serious medical need. Its success must have been solely due to the clever marketing, part of which included publishing a promotional cookbook called Food and Health in the same year as our menu. Here is a recipe from the book which is suitable for everyone whatever their state of health, for it contains two essential food groups – bread and chocolate.

CHOCOLATE BREAD PUDDING
Ingredients
2 cups bread crumbs4 cups of milk (or 2 of water and 2 of evaporated milk)2 squares chocolate⅔ cup sugar1 salt spoon salt1 teaspoon vanilla
Method—Soak bread crumbs in milk until soft. Melt the chocolate over hot water and add the sugar to it. Beat eggs well and add with the remaining ingredients to the crumbs and milk. Mix well and bake in a buttered pudding-dish in a moderate oven, until thick and firm. A Meringue of egg white and sugar may be spread over the top about 15 minutes before it is done, or it can be served with cream, hard, or foamy sauce.
Hard Sauce—⅓ cup butter, 1 cup powdered sugar, ⅓ teaspoon lemon extract, ⅔ teaspoon vanilla. Cream the butter, add sugar gradually, and flavoring.

Tomorrow’s Story …

Pioneers and Persimmons.

A Previous Story for this Day …

On this day last year we had a recipe from Nostradamus.

On this Topic …

We considered Cock-Ale, Sack whey and Banana Rissoles for the sick in ‘Alcohol and Other Food for Invalids.’

Quotation for the Day …

If your doctor does not think it good for you to sleep, to drink wine, or to eat of a particular dish, do not worry; I will find you another who will not agree with him. Michel de Montaigne.