In the Middle Ages, and down to and through the period of renaissance, spices were used for the production of sauces to be eaten with meat. But cinnamon, the principal ingredient of these sauces, has for many generations been confined to the spicing of sweet dishes, and been almost entirely excluded from savoury compositions. The principal spices of the cameline sauce (probably a corruption from cannelline sauce), of which the corporation of the sauciers of Paris obtained a monopoly, about 1494, under Louis XII., were cinnamon, cloves, grains of Paradise, bread, and vinegar. Of the sauce called gence, ginger was the prevailing flavour, with almonds, verjuice, and wine. * Cf. Herat and Delens, ‘Diet. Mat. Med.,’ Poivre, vol. iii., p. .510. SALINE CONDIMENTS 91 Classification of Condiments. In the following pages we have attempted a classification of condiments for the purpose of obtaining some kind of order in which the materials may be grouped. We have included culinary colouring matters, although only one of them is actually an aromatic substance, because they are most frequently used in combination with condiments. First Group : Saline Condiments. Common Salt {Chloride of Sodium). — Salt is not only a condiment, but also a mineral food, essential to the neutrali- zation in the human body of the efiects of the large quan- tities of potassium salts introduced in vegetable food. It is for this reason that vegetable feeders, or so-called vege- tarians, require relatively more salt with their food, par- ticularly potatoes, than flesh-eaters. Similarly, herbivora seek salt, and like it, while carnivora never do. But when we observe how small are the quantities which herbivorous animals, e.g., horses or deer, obtain from day to day, or that many, e.g., cattle and deer in some parks, never obtain any, we cannot believe that it is essential to them as food, but is sought by them mainly as a spice, for the sake of its impression upon the sense of taste. A German professor of so-called physiological chemistry asserts that ‘ we ’ (meaning society at large) ‘ are accustomed to take far too much salt with our viands.’ This is, perhaps, only partly true for portions of the Continent, but is certainly not so for Eng- land, where dishes of all kinds are only slightly salted, and the final conditioning of each morsel is left to the individual consumer. We recommend cooks to adhere to this well- established practice, and rather to under than over salt their productions ; they should also take care to retnove by judicious soaking in water all superfluous salt from salted provisions, which, like haras or salt fish, are preserved in an excess of the mineral condiment. 92 THE SPIRIT OF COOKERY Saltpetre or Nitre [Nitrate of Potash). — This salt is used in conjunction with common salt for preserving meat. Its particular function is to maintain and heighten the red colour of the flesh, or some colouring matter derived from it. That this is its only function seems supported by the fact that it is never used in the preservation of fish. Second Group : Peppery Substances — French Epices.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

In the Middle Ages, and down to and through the period of renaissance, spices were used for the production of sauces to be eaten with meat. But cinnamon, the principal ingredient of these sauces, has for many generations been confined to the spicing of sweet dishes, and been almost entirely excluded from savoury compositions. The principal spices of the cameline sauce (probably a corruption from cannelline sauce), of which the corporation of the sauciers of Paris obtained a monopoly, about 1494, under Louis XII., were cinnamon, cloves, grains of Paradise, bread, and vinegar. Of the sauce called gence, ginger was the prevailing flavour, with almonds, verjuice, and wine. * Cf. Herat and Delens, ‘Diet. Mat. Med.,’ Poivre, vol. iii., p. .510. SALINE CONDIMENTS Classification of Condiments. In the following pages we have attempted a classification of condiments for the purpose of obtaining some kind of order in which the materials may be grouped. We have included culinary colouring matters, although only one of them is actually an aromatic substance, because they are most frequently used in combination with condiments. First Group : Saline Condiments. Common Salt {Chloride of Sodium). — Salt is not only a condiment, but also a mineral food, essential to the neutralization in the human body of the effects of the large quantities of potassium salts introduced in vegetable food. It is for this reason that vegetable feeders, or so-called vegetarians, require relatively more salt with their food, particularly potatoes, than flesh-eaters. Similarly, herbivora seek salt, and like it, while carnivora never do. But when we observe how small are the quantities which herbivorous animals, e.g., horses or deer, obtain from day to day, or that many, e.g., cattle and deer in some parks, never obtain any, we cannot believe that it is essential to them as food, but is sought by them mainly as a spice, for the sake of its impression upon the sense of taste. A German professor of so-called physiological chemistry asserts that ‘ we ’ (meaning society at large) ‘ are accustomed to take far too much salt with our viands.’ This is, perhaps, only partly true for portions of the Continent, but is certainly not so for England, where dishes of all kinds are only slightly salted, and the final conditioning of each morsel is left to the individual consumer. We recommend cooks to adhere to this well-established practice, and rather to under than over salt their productions ; they should also take care to remove by judicious soaking in water all superfluous salt from salted provisions, which, like haras or salt fish, are preserved in an excess of the mineral condiment. Saltpetre or Nitre [Nitrate of Potash). — This salt is used in conjunction with common salt for preserving meat. Its particular function is to maintain and heighten the red colour of the flesh, or some colouring matter derived from it. That this is its only function seems supported by the fact that it is never used in the preservation of fish. Second Group : Peppery Substances — French Epices.

The spirit of cookery