Foods, their selection and preparation

Chili is a designation used to cover many varieties of peppers used to flavor foods in Mexico and other Latin-American countries. Some are relatively mild while others are like white fire. Chile generally refers to the Chili Colorado or red chili used as a flavoring in rich sauces. This is only mildly hot. Chili Jalapeno (either cooked or pickled) is served with meat. Two varieties, Serrano and Piquin, are described as delicious, but very hot. These are only a few of the many kinds produced. The different varieties represent a wide range in flavor. In some form, as a sauce, a pickle, cooked with the food, or served raw as a relish, they are used exten¬ sively to add flavor to menus in Mexico and other countries to the south of us. Spices. Various parts of tropical plants, shrubs, and trees are used as spice to add flavor to our foods. Cinnamon and cassia are inner barks; cloves and capers are flower buds; mustard, anise, caraway, coriander, cardamon, and nutmeg are seeds; mace is the covering of the nutmeg; allspice is a fruit; horseradish, ginger, and tumeric are dried root stocks; and the leaf of the bay tree, either fresh or dried, is used. Curry is a mixture of ground spices with pepper, in which tumeric is the principal ingredient. Spices are dried. Many of them are ground and pulverized, although some are available unground. Cinnamon may be pur¬ chased as bark; allspice, cloves, and nutmegs as dried fruit, flower, and seed. With the [351] Office of Foreign Agricultural Relations, U.S.D.A. Vanilla Beans Grow in Clusters on a Tropical Vine Belonging to the Orchid Family exception of the nutmeg, which must be grated, these are used directly. Spices in whole form lose flavor less rapidly than when ground. Cinnamon and cloves are available as aromatic oils. In this form, they are very strong and must be used with care, but the oils are useful to flavor food mixtures with¬ out influencing color. Spices should be kept in a tightly closed container, since much of their aroma and flavor are lost on exposure to air. Flavoring Extracts. Flavoring extracts are solutions of aromatic oils in alcohol. True extracts are made from the volatile and soluble flavoring substances obtained from plant sources. Many characteristic natural flavors now are closely duplicated by syn¬ thetic chemical compounds. These are used to prepare artificial or imitation flavors, which muct be so labeled. A Bundle of Sixty Vanilla Beans Cured and Ready for the Market U.S.D.A. Exp. Sta. Mayaguez, Puerto Rico Flavors are obtained from plant materials by various means. Some can be extracted di¬ rectly, as the oils in the citrus peel and the al¬ mond. The delicate flavor of rose leaves is ab¬ sorbed on sugar crushed with the petals and then dissolved to yield a rose-flavored sirup. Some flavor substances, like peppermint, are volatile and are recovered by distillation after the leaves have been macerated to re¬ lease the essential flavor substance. Vanilla is obtained from beans that grow on a tropical vine closely related to the orchid. Its distinctive fragrance and flavor are developed by curing the beans after gathering. Formerly the bean itself was sold as a source of flavor; small portions were added directly to mixtures to be flavored. Another [352]