The Chemistry of Cookery

he says: ‘The pleasure enjoyed in eating depends, first, on the agreeableness of the taste of the food; and, secondly, upon its power to affect the palate. Now, there are many substances extremely cheap, by which very agreeable tastes may be given to food, particularly when the basis or nutritive substance of the food is tasteless; and the effect of any kind of palatable solid food (of meat, for instance) upon the organs of taste may be increased, almost indefinitely, by reducing the size of the particles of such food, and causing it to act upon the palate by a larger surface. And if means be used to prevent its being swallowed too soon, which may easily be done by mixing it with some hard and tasteless substance, such as crumbs of bread rendered hard by toasting, or anything else of that kind, by which a long mastication is rendered necessary, the enjoyment of eating may be greatly increased and prolonged.’ He adds that ‘the idea of occupying a person a great while, and affording him much pleasure at the same time in eating a small quantity of food, may perhaps appear ridiculous to some; but those who consider the matter attentively will perceive that it is very important. It is perhaps as much so as anything that can employ the attention of the philosopher.’ Further on he adds: ‘If a glutton can be made to gormandise two hours upon two ounces of meat, it is certainly much better for him than to give himself an indigestion by eating two pounds in the same time.’ This is amusing as well as instructive; so also are his researches into what I may venture to describe as the _specific sapidity_ of different kinds of food, which he determined by diluting or intermixing them with insipid materials, and thereby ascertaining the amount of surface over which they might be spread before their particular flavour disappeared. He concluded that a red herring has the highest specific sapidity—_i.e._ the greatest amount of flavour in a given weight of any kind of food he had tested,