Culinary History

Back in the Dark Ages' when I was a callow youth attending university, fresh out of high school, my chemistry professor was a nice lady who decades later wrote a book called "Napoleon's Buttons: Seventeen Molecules that Changed History". It charts the discovery, history and development of trade in various substances, many of which have culinary relevance.

They include foods which had profound effects on trade and exploration as well as other substances related to fabrics and other areas. I thought I'd mention the book as I know that there are other foodie geeks here that might greatly enjoy it. It is by Penny Le Couteur, who spent four decades teaching.

https://www.amazon.com/Napoleons-Buttons-Molecules-Changed-History/dp/1585423319

Thanks for sharing this. The book title refers to the legend that the use of tin buttons on French uniforms was a contributing factor to the failure of Napoleon's invasion of Russia.

Tin exists in two allotropic forms: alpha tin (aka grey tin) and beta tin (aka white tin). Beta tin is the familiar soft, white metal used as a lining in metal cans and copperware because it is more corrosion-resistant than iron or copper. Below 13.2 Celsius (55.8 Fahrenheit), beta tin converts to the alpha form, which is hard, brittle, and non-metallic in nature. The spontaneous conversion of beta tin to alpha tin is called "tin pest". The persistent legend is that the severe cold temperatures during Napoleon's invasion of Russia caused the tin buttons on the French uniforms to snap and shatter, leaving the soldiers exposed to the elements.

The pipes for pipe organs are typically a 50/50 alloy of tin and lead. A high proportion of tin gives a pleasant tone. The lead in the alloy lowers the allotropic conversion temperature of the tin substantially, but at one church in Russia it got cold enough one day for tin pest to set in. The pipes converted to alpha tin and shattered when played.

-Paul W.

Thanks for that, Paul. I recalled tin pest once you mentioned it but my chemistry (except for the odd bits I use) is a distant memory. As a clock collector I sometimes get into bell metal (copper and tin) and the repair thereof as I like to keep as much original as I can on clocks that are sometimes over 300 years old.

Finding some interesting things in this book -

- among mammals, only primates, guinea pigs and the Indian fruit bat require vitamin C in their diet. Dogs, cats, etc. manufacture ascorbic acid in the liver from glucose.

- the earliest golf balls were made of wood - elm or beech, until the Scots invented the 'feathery' in the 18th C. - a leather outer stuffed with bird feathers.but they had a tendency to split and come apart particularly in wet weather. In 1848 the 'gutta' was invented using gutta percha, a rubbery compound, but they tended to break up, so a rule of golf at the time provided that if that happened, you could drop another ball wherever the largest chunk of the old ball had landed.

- the Macintosh was invented as a rain coat by adding rubber o fabric coats but they tended to become iron hard and brittle in winter and to melt down into a smelly mess in summer.

- the Macintosh was invented as a rain coat by adding rubber o fabric coats but they tended to become iron hard and brittle in winter and to melt down into a smelly mess in summer.

Vulcan to the rescue!

among mammals, only primates, guinea pigs and the Indian fruit bat require vitamin C in their diet. Dogs, cats, etc. manufacture ascorbic acid in the liver from glucose.

Which means that, despite what they say in pirate-speak, there is no such thing as a scurvy dog. Arr, matey!

-Paul W.

among mammals, only primates, guinea pigs and the Indian fruit bat require vitamin C in their diet. Dogs, cats, etc. manufacture ascorbic acid in the liver from glucose.

Which means that, despite what they say in pirate-speak, there is no such thing as a scurvy dog. Arr, matey!

-Paul W.

Excellent point!

Dyes are another area where chemical advances had great importance, as far back as Roman and Phoenician times when royal purple meant harvesting a lot of sea snails. Blue was also prized and came from indigo plants and the English were well known to 'hit the woad' as far back as the Stone Age. They also 'got Madder' if they wanted to see red.

Dyes are another area where chemical advances had great importance, as far back as Roman and Phoenician times when royal purple meant harvesting a lot of sea snails.

Specifically, Tyrian purple (aka royal purple) was made from the mucus of several species of Mediterranean murex snails. Snails could either be milked for the mucus--a tedious process but one that keeps the snails as a renewable resource, or harvested from killed snails. It took a lot of snails to produce a significant amount of pigment. 12,000 snails yielded only 1.4 grams of dye, enough to cover only the trim of a single garment. Hence, clothing colored with Tyrian purple was affordable only by the wealthy and powerful. The dye was especially treasured because of its vivid color, which, instead of fading when exposed to sunlight, became more brilliant.

In Roman times there were sumptuary laws that restricted the wearing of clothing dyed with Tyrian purple to the rich and powerful. Senior Roman magistrates were allowed to wear a Tyrian purple stripe on their toga and tunic. Triumphant Roman generals wore a toga picta--solid Tyrian purple with gold edging--at their victory celebrations. By the 4th century AD the wearing of Tyrian purple was restricted to the Roman emperor, and purple became synonymous with the imperial office. Children of a reigning Byzantine emperor were said to be born to the purple.

Tyrian purple dye retained a smell of decomposing shellfish, so there was a downside to wearing such garments. Perhaps that is where the expression "stinking rich" comes from?

-Paul W.

And the spiny dye Murex (snail that produced Tyrian purple) is known in Portugese as canaílla, and they're delicious (funnest thing I cooked in AirBnB in Lisbon)

They have beautiful shells, too. We have murexes in New England (Urosalpinx cinerea, aka the oyster drill), but they are tiny (shells about an inch long). Nearly all snails and slugs have a file-like rough tongue called a radula. In the murexes the radula is sharp and pointed. it is used to drill holes in the clams and other bivalve mollusks that the murexes prey on. I've found many clam shells washed up on the Connecticut shore that have neat holes drilled in them by a murex snail.

-Paul W.

And we still don't know the ancient way of producing Tyrian purple, but people are trying.

Malaria was so common that the papal conclave in 1665 was the first that saw no deaths among the gathered churchmen due to them contracting malaria. because one priest had brought back some bark of the 'fever tree'. Priests brought back bark and sold it as a malarial cure, but hard cases like Oliver Cromwell refused to be treated by a 'papist' remedy (it was by then known as 'Jesuit's powder) died from it in 1658.

A chemist in England working a couple of centuries later, attempting to synthesize quinine, failed, but hit it lucky as one of his experiments resulted in him making mauve, which was valuable as a dye.

I enjoy using quinine (tonic) water mixed with a shot of Angostura bitters in a tall iced glass of gin to fend off the potentially infected mosquitos around my neighbourhood in summer. Strictly for medicinal purposes, mind you!

The bark of the fever tree features in the TV adaptation of Bernard Cornwell's novel Sharpe's Siege. The novel is set in the Napoleonic Wars, just as Wellington is preparing to invade France. Major Sharpe's wife comes down with malaria, which the British call "fever", and is gravely ill. The only known cure for fever is Jesuit's bark, which the British call quinine. It was introduced into European culture by Jesuit missionaries to Peru, where the indigenous people used it as a cure for malaria.

Quinine dissolved in water became known as tonic water because of its effects in preventing or curing malaria. Quinine has a bitter, unpalatable taste that can be masked by gin. And so the cocktail gin and tonic was born.

Alas, since the early 1600s, the plasmodium that causes malaria has developed a resistance and quinine is all but ineffective against malaria these days.

-Paul W.

Yes, I think chloroquine took over some time after WW2. I think it is still effective and the resistant strains haven't shown up (yet?).

Resistant strains of Plasmodium falciparum (the plasmodium that causes the most severe forms of malaria) unfortunately are showing up. Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are still first-line treatments in areas where the resistant strains haven't shown up (yet).

-Paul W.

I enjoy using quinine (tonic) water mixed with a shot of Angostura bitters in a tall iced glass of gin to fend off the potentially infected mosquitos around my neighbourhood in summer. Strictly for medicinal purposes, mind you!

I like the same recipe, plus a wedge of lime, which are cheap here (until the tariffs hit).

Resistant strains of Plasmodium falciparum (the plasmodium that causes the most severe forms of malaria) unfortunately are showing up. Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are still first-line treatments in areas where the resistant strains haven't shown up (yet). -Paul W.

Malaria is so difficult to treat because it changes constantly into different forms during its lifetime. Which is why the mosquito is considered the most dangerous animal on our planet. I'll drink (G&T) to that!