Water was not to be trusted as a berverage: it carried cholera, typhoid fever, dysentery, E. coli, and a host of other nasty parasites and diseases, many of them not well understood at the time but clearly originating in water. A mildly alcoholic drink like cider was inhospitable to bacteria, could be stored for short periods, and was safe and pleasant to drink, even at breakfast. Everyone drank it, including children. (查看原文)
To make pulque, the flowering stalk of the agave is cut just as it starts to form. The plant waits its entire life for this moment, stockpiling sugars for a decade or more in anticipation of the emergence of this appendage. Cutting it forces the base to swell without growing taller; at that point, the wound is covered and allowed to rest for several months while the sap builds. Then it is punctured again, causing the heart to rot. This rotten interior is scooped out and the inside of the cavity is repeatedly scraped, which irritates the plant so much that the sap begins to flow profusedly. (查看原文)
why bother with wheat at all, if it is so difficult to work with? Try a German Hefeweizen and you'll have your answer. There is a definite bread and biscuit aroma that is impossible not to love. Wheat is also smooth and round and easygoing. It settles in happily with the other flavors around it. German wheat beers are known for their spicy, citrusy character; this comes not so much from the hops but from special strains of yeast that go to work on those wheat sugars and produce their own unique flavors. Those beers are also known for their thick, foamy head, which is mostly dissolved wheat protein. Many brewers add a touch of wheat to their grain mixture just for the foam. (查看原文)
when they arrived in Norway, they found that the long, rollicking sea voyage had greatly improved the aquavit. To reproduce the flavor, they tried simply storing the aquavit in sherry casks, but it wasn't the same. The brutal sea voyage, with its time in warm equatorial seas and in cold Nordic waters, combined with the tossing and turning of the ship, caused the casks to expand and contract in a way that released more flavor from the oak. For that reason, casks of Linie still voyage around the world for four and a half months on the decks of cargo ships, crossing the equator twice and visiting thirty-five countries. The distiller once kept this strange method of aging the spirit a secret, but now a log of the voyage is printed on every label. (查看原文)
Clove extract has been used thoughout history-and continues to be used today-as a dental anesthetic because of its numbing and analgestic effects. In fact, that distinctive dentist office smell comes in part frmo cloves. (查看原文)
The essential oil found in the fresh leaves and on the surface of the unripe fruit in instantly recognizable and not to everyone's like, owing to genetic differences in how people percive flavors. (查看原文)
A small, pricky tree that grows in the Sudanese desert has been responsible for such diverse duties as keeping newspaper ink on the page, preserving Egyption mummies, and stabilizing the sugar and color in soft drinks. (查看原文)
