The Chemistry of Cookery

that of tea, ‘a spoonful for each person and one for the pot.’ The French after-dinner coffee-cup has about one-third of the liquid capacity of a full-sized English breakfast-cup, but the quantity of solid coffee supplied to each cupful is more than equal to that ordinarily allowed for the larger English measure of water. Besides this, the coffee is commonly, though not universally, flavoured with a specially and skilfully-prepared caramel, instead of the chicory so largely used in England. Much of the so-called ‘French coffee’ now sold by our grocers in tins is caramel flavoured with coffee rather than coffee flavoured with caramel, and many shrewd English housewives have discovered that by mixing the cheapest of these French coffees with an equal quantity of pure coffee they obtain a better result than with the common domestic mixture of three parts coffee and one of chicory. A few months ago a sample of ‘coffee-finings’ was sent to me for chemical examination, that I might certify to its composition and wholesomeness. I described it in my report as ‘a caramel, with a peculiarly rich aroma and flavour, evidently due to the vegetable juices or extractive matter naturally united with the saccharine substance from which it is prepared.’ I had no definite information of the exact nature of this saccharine substance, but have since learned that it was a bye-product of sugar refining. Neither the juice of the beetroot nor the sap of the sugar-cane consists entirely of pure sugar dissolved in pure water. They both contain other constituents common to vegetable juices, and some peculiar to themselves. These mucilaginous matters, when roughly separated, carry down with them some sugar, and form a sort of coarse sweetwort, capable by skilful treatment of producing a rich caramel well suited for mixing with coffee. Returning to the subject of frying, we encounter a good illustration of the practical importance of sound theory. A great deal of fish and other kinds of food is badly and wastefully cooked in consequence of the prevalence of a false theory of frying. It is evident that many domestic cooks