Let the Meatballs Rest by Montanari Massimo Brombert Beth A

Let the Meatballs Rest by Montanari Massimo Brombert Beth A

Author:Montanari, Massimo, Brombert, Beth A. [Montanari, Massimo, Brombert, Beth A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: CKB041000, Cooking/History, CKB030000, Cooking/Essays
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2012-11-26T23:00:00+00:00


The taste of smoke

Is smoke a substance or an accident? This Aristotelian-sounding question (it was Aristotle who made the distinction between substantive elements in the nature of things and occasional or accidental ones) is central to a curious story, probably of Oriental origin, that appears in Novellino, a collection of anecdotes and tales compiled in Florence in the thirteenth century. It is the story of a poor Saracen who, having nothing to eat besides a piece of bread, stood next to the steaming pot of a street vendor holding his piece of bread in the smoke to give it some flavor: “and when the bread was saturated with the smoke that rose out of the food, he bit into it.” The cook, who had sold next to nothing that day, demanded that he be paid, maintaining that the smoke, a product of the food he had prepared, was his property. They began quarreling and so the question was brought to the sultan, who summoned the wise men of the court and listened to their opinions. One of them argued that smoke cannot be considered an integral part of food, because it vanishes and provides no nutrition. Others said, on the contrary, that it is part of the substance, as it is generated by it. After listening to all of them, the sultan reached his decision. He gave the poor man a coin and ordered him to drop it on the ground. To the cook he said, “Payment can be assumed, given the sound that came from it.”

This amusing fable, which contains an interesting philosophical and scientific disquisition, regards smoke as the carrier of perfumes and aromas. Smoke not only carries odors, but in certain cases even generates them. Specifically, this occurs when smoke is used to preserve meat, fish, and cheese. The primary purpose of this process is to preserve the food, to envelop in smoke a product, perhaps preventively salted, so as to dry it and eliminate the moisture that could cause its rapid deterioration. Throughout the peasant world, and above all (though not only) in cold regions, this ancient technique assured the longer duration of food and provided a defense against the threat of hunger. In the Middle Ages, many rural houses had smoke rooms to treat the winter food supply in this manner. Even a sovereign like Charlemagne ordered the administrators of his properties to “oversee with much care and great cleanliness” the preparation of smoked meats, such as salamis and sausages.

Treatments like these make foods take on a particular taste, which in some cases are expressly desired. Smoke is not only an odor but a flavor, and one can grow accustomed to this flavor, as to any other, and even become fond of it. Drinks have also been smoked One has only to think of certain kinds of whiskey. In such practices it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to separate reasons of necessity from those of taste. This is precisely what is so fascinating about the



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