INTRODUCTION
It is with a certain feeling of helplessness and loneliness that I am venturing upon the attempt to trace out the history of spices, as I have not a spice grove or garden to step into for my information; but I must depend upon a far-distant country, where intelligence is but little above what it was five hundred years ago, where may be found the lair of the lion and the jungles of the tiger, where the elephant is used as a beast of burden, where the people file their teeth and color them black because they think natural white teeth too much like dogs’ teeth. The fact that such ignorance is general in the Spice Islands obviously makes my information the more difficult to obtain. Moreover, the camera and its uses are not known among the Malays, and the painter’s art is not among their imaginings. For these reasons, the illustrations I have obtained have been secured only at great cost, but they are as true to nature in color as it is possible for printer’s ink to make them. I hope they will aid me in realizing my purpose of making dealers in spices more familiar with their goods.
It was not until after long and careful consideration of the fact that the mass of people know but little about the condiments which are to be found on almost every table, and of the further fact of the “inhumanity of man to man” in adulterating, that I was bold enough to attempt to write upon a subject never before written upon, except in a meager way. And although I do not expect to interest all who may read my pages, I hope to create a wish in some to know more of the flavors which so tickle the palate, the fruits of that far-distant county, the Straits Settlement, and neighboring regions.
If I succeed in creating a desire among the retail dealers in spices to know the goods better, and to sell only those which are pure and wholesome, I shall feel that my work has not been a failure. In placing the same before the public, I believe it to be the most complete work ever written upon the subject with which it deals.
The Author.
I am much indebted to the United States Department of Agriculture, Bulletin 13, by Clifford Richardson, for information in Chapter 3, on Adulterations and Analysis of Spices. Also to the United States Consulates of the cities of Penang, Singapore, and Colombo, to whom I extend thanks.
CHAPTER I
EARLY HISTORY OF SPICES
“Be still! oh North winds, and come, oh Southern breezes, and blow upon
my garden, that the spice trees therein may blossom and bear fruit!”
“His cheeks are as a bed of spices, of sweet flowers.”
—The Song of Solomon.
THE terms spices and condiments are applied to those articles which, while possessing in themselves no nutritious principles, are added to food to make it more palatable and to stimulate digestion. They are of an exclusively vegetable origin, and occupy an important position in the diet of the human race.
A ride of thirty-five days by ocean steamer from New York City brings us to the city of Singapore, situated on a small island of that name, the principal exporting city and the metropolis and capital of Malaysia, the Straits Settlement, India. The islands that constitute the Straits Settlement are crowned with spice forests. Here the noonday sun is truly vertical twice each year, and for many days it passes so near the zenith that change is scarcely perceptible. Here the grand constellation Orion passes overhead, while the Great Bear and Pole Star lie low down in the horizon. To the south may be seen the Southern Cross, and the planets high in the zenith.
ASIATIC ARCHIPELAGO
No autumn tints, like those of our Northern woods, deck the spice forests. There is no purple and yellow dying foliage which rivals, and even excels, the expiring dolphin in splendor, and the long, cold sleep of winter and the first gentle touch of spring are unknown. But instead, we behold a ceaseless round of active life, which weaves the fair scenery of the tropics into one monotonous whole, the component parts of which exhibit in detail untold variety and beauty; and no one component part impresses us more forcibly than the spice trees. It is said that sailors, several miles at sea, in favorable weather, with a gentle land breeze, can tell they are nearing land long before they come in sight of the islands by the fragrance of the spice gardens. Singapore has a population of only 200,000, and the small island on which it is built contains but 145,000 acres, yet the city does a business of $200,000,000 a year and can count its millionaires by the score. Eighty years ago, the place where it stands was simply a jungle for tigers.
Singapore has ships from every port of the world going in and out of its harbor, and its streets are as lively as those of New York. You can go from it to the continent in a rowboat in one-half hour. Close connections are also made at Singapore for Siam, Borneo, Australia, China, Japan, Sumatra, and Ceylon, and it is the half-way station of the voyage around the world. The Island of Ceylon, with Colombo as its capital and chief city of export, also produces many fine spices. What could India do without her Spice Forests? This is a question which remains unanswered. We might as well ask what the United States could do without its wheat fields.
The different grades of spices take their names from the country or city from which they are exported, each different kind having a flavor of its own. Our best grades come mostly from Penang, and are called “Penang Spice,” while spice of nearly as good a quality comes from parts of Malabar. Other chief cities of export are Bombay, Batavia, Calcutta, and Cayenne, South America; but the most important is Singapore, as has been before mentioned.
A PLANTATION ON JAMAICA ISLAND
A PLANTATION IN INDIA
The declared value of all spices shipped direct to this country averages about $12,000,000 worth annually. Among the cities that import spices New York stands first, probably receiving more than three-quarters of all importations. In 1898, 5,000,000 pounds of ginger were received at New York—19,000 bags being from Calcutta, 9,010 from Africa, 65,000 from Cochin, 3,608 barrels from Jamaica. There were 6,000,000 pounds of pepper received at New York, and probably nearly as much more at other ports. This may seem a large amount, but when we consider the quantity used in prepared meats and pickles, and the fact that pepper is on every table which can afford a pepper-box or caster, and that pepper enters into some of our food at nearly every meal, the above amount, which gives less than one-sixth of a pound per capita, is not large. A larger sum is paid for pepper than for any other spice. The amount paid for spices in this country annually does not fall much short of one dollar per capita at retail prices.
Four and one-half days by ocean steamer from New York brings us to the Island of Jamaica; and this chapter would not be complete if I did not mention that gem of the West Indies, the home of the Pimento and the famous Jamaica Ginger. Xaymaca (the Indian name for Jamaica) is like a huge mountain standing alone in the Caribbean Sea, with its hard, white coral beach and ideal climate. The ride from Kingston, the capital of the island, with its 50,000 population of picturesque folks (Americans, Europeans, West Indies women, gorgeously arrayed, and the coolie women loaded with ornaments), to beautiful Montego Bay and Port Antonio is an experience never to be forgotten.
CHAPTER II
ADULTERATION OF SPICES
THE Dutch at one time tried to control much of the spice trade but were frustrated by the birds which carried the seeds and planted them in other countries. We are strongly inclined to look upon the scheming Dutchman with contempt for this selfish act, but there is to-day hovering over spice products a greater evil, which makes one feel almost like shedding tears of shame for the acts of men who adulterate spices. If they would stop in their work long enough to ponder on the following appropriate words, they might receive new light in their attempt to mock Nature:
“Thou great first cause, and only cause direct,
All else existing, only in effect;
Cause and effect must harmonize and blend,
To doubt the cause, we need but doubt the end.
Perfection altered, would produce a flaw.
God cannot err, hence, cannot change His law.
First, follow Nature, and your judgment frame
By her just standard which is still the same.
Unerring Nature, still divinely bright,
One clear, unchanged and universal light.
Life, force, and beauty must all impart;
At once the source, and end, the test of Art.”
When the spice grinder will consider how hard it is to hide the spark of Nature, whoever yields reward to him who seeks and loves her best, and when the retail dealer of spices will remember that there is another man on the other side of the counter who is entitled to his money’s worth, then, and not until then, will the evil of the adulteration of spices be done away with. A merchant who will, knowingly, sell to his customer adulterated spices at the value of pure goods is worse than a thief, because he not only robs them of their money but gives them poison for their stomach.
Spice millers should not be counterfeiters! How can they afford to imperil their reputation by advertising “scheme goods”? Let them grind their spices to give Nature’s flavors as they grow in the balmy forests of the East Indies. Let them not mix these spices to suit the price of the retail dealer, but grind them pure, to please the tongue and the palate, and then hang out their sign, as their business would suggest, as spice millers or grinders, instead of “spice manufacturers.” If the retail dealer of adulterated spices trusts a customer who will not pay his indebtedness, he calls the man a rogue, but forgets that the greater rogue is himself; that his customer has the law on his side, and that his best witness is the adulterated goods which were sold him; furthermore, this dealer is teaching to the clerk whom he has taken into his employ, with a promise to teach the young man the trade and good business principles of an honest merchant, the trade of a thief, and as such teaches him to rob his employer. If the merchant breaks his part of the contract, can he expect the clerk to keep his? If the clerk, trained by the dealer in dishonesty, steals from the cash-drawer, would it be right to discharge him with a tarnish on the good name he had when he entered such employ? Let the dealer keep pure goods, and teach his clerk their merit. By so doing, he can be twice armed when he is selling in competition with a dealer of adulterations.
Let not the merchant profess to seek after the prosperity of the country; let him wonder not that business is dull; that labor is unemployed; that enterprise is dead, when he is doing all he can to destroy business and commercial prosperity by undermining the public confidence, which is the foundation upon which all commercial enterprise rests. Nothing is more essential to business prosperity than a confidence that prosperous, existing conditions will remain unchanged. He who is helping to destroy that confidence makes himself a stumbling block in the public highway of humanity and, as such, is a detriment to mankind. He is the greatest enemy to self that humanity can produce. He is like a vine which climbs the tree and obtains its life by sucking the life of that to which it clings. No man can be a good citizen who will wrong his fellow man simply because the laws of the country will protect him or, in other words, will not punish him for such wrongdoing. A miller or retail dealer of mixed or adulterated spices is as much a criminal as the man who has ingenuity enough to shape a coin from alloy and stamp it as a legal standard, or as one who counterfeits a bank note, for all are guilty of illegal acts to obtain wealth. The government punishes the counterfeiter of money, but the dealer in adulterated goods is allowed freedom. The government will grant a patent for the latest improvement in machinery for mixing spices, but it will not grant a patent for a die to counterfeit bank notes.
The dealing in adulterations is not confined to the poorer dealers. Among those who are guilty of this wrong we find the wealthy and those professing to be Christians—men who shudder at a dishonest act, but they apparently forget their duty to God and man. Is not such conduct mockery? Is it not offensive to God? If not, where could we find that which would be? Let men dare to do right if they wish to be successful and respected. Let them dare to do right for the sake of their fellow man who is striving for an honest living. Let them dare to do right and not wait for the law to compel them. Let them remember that there is something in an honest name which they cannot afford to lose! To the consumer of spices, this should be said: Be willing your grocer should live and obtain a profit for his work. Do not compel him to handle adulterated goods by quoting him the price of his neighbor dealer who sells the adulterated stock. Spices of high order are more costly, but are cheap to the consumer by reason of excess of flavor and strength. Let your dealer know you can appreciate a good article and, if he handles adulterated goods, remind him “that he may fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but he can’t fool all of the people all of the time.” [[1]]As an illustration of the extent of the adulteration of spices, the fact may be cited that one firm in New York City used and put upon the market in their spices more than 5,000 pounds of cocoanut shells. To show how bold the custom has become, the following quotation is copied from a journal devoted to spices:
“All necessary information for spice manufacturing supplied.”
And the following advertisements appear:
“Manufacturers of spice mixtures and mustard. Goods made to order for wholesale.”
“Grocers’ spice mixtures and cayenne pepper a specialty.”
Another reads:
“Manufacturers of all kinds of spice mixtures. My celebrated brand of P. D. pepper is superior to any made; samples sent on application. Goods shipped to all parts of the United States. Spice mixtures a specialty.”
Out of all samples obtained at random from the miller or retail dealer, one-half to two-thirds have been found to be adulterated. Such a state of affairs is simply barbarous.
[1]. Since the words on adulterations were written, the pure food laws of the different states have been greatly enforced, which has reduced adulterating almost to an entirety; but enough yet remains to make them of value.
Cloves were prepared with the volatile oil extracted, and with the cloves there were ground clove stems, roasted shells, wheat flour, peas, and minerals. Allspice is ground with burnt shells and crackers, spent clove stems and charcoal and mineral color. Ginger, with corn flour, mustard hulls, coloring, and yellow corn meal.
Mace, with flour buckwheat, wild mace, and corn meal. Cayenne, with rice flour, stale shipstuff, yellow corn meal, tumeric, and mineral red. Cassia, with ground shells and crackers, tumeric, and minerals.
Cinnamon, with cassia, peas, starch, mustard hulls and tumeric, mineral cracker dust, burnt shells, or charcoal. Pepper, with refuse of all kinds, ground crackers, cocoanut shells, cayenne, peas, beans, yellow corn meal, buckwheat hulls, nutmegs, cereal, starch, mustard hulls, rice flour, charcoal, and pepper dust. Mustard, with tumeric for color, and cayenne to tone it up, cereal starch, peas, yellow corn meal, ginger, and gypsum.
By comparing prices in the following table of ground and whole spices, we may see to what extent adulteration is carried on. This adulteration is so largely practiced that it has given rise to a branch of the manufacturing industry of great magnitude, which has for its sole object the manufacture of articles known as “spice mixtures,” or “pepper dust,” which are known to the trade by such technical abbreviations as “P. D.” This is a venerable fraud, which has expanded with rapidity.
TABLE
| KINDS OF SPICE PRODUCT | GROUND | WHOLE PRICE |
|---|---|---|
| Cassia, Batavia, | 7 to 7½ cents | 10 cents |
| Cassia, China, | 5¼ cents | 42 cents |
| Cassia, Saigon, | 36 to 40 cents | |
| Cloves, Amboyna, | 27 cents | 32 cents |
| Ginger, African, | 5 cents | 8 cents |
| Ginger, Cochin, | 13 cents | 12 cents |
| Mace, | 50 cents | |
| Nutmegs, 110s, | 48 cents | |
| Pepper, black, Singapore, | 18 cents | 18 cents |
| Pepper, black, West Coast, | 16 cents | 15 cents |
| Pepper, white, Penang, | 29 cents | 32 cents |
| Pepper, red, Zanzibar, | 9 cents | 10 cents |
| Pimento, | 5 cents | |
| Mustard, yellow, | 4 cents | 12 cents |
| Mustard, brown, | 5 cents | 12 cents |
Of course, the above prices are standard for the year when the comparison was made, but it is well to examine the figures as given and compare the price of the whole spice with the ground. Such comparison affords good indications of the extent of adulteration, since the meal is sold below the cost of the whole spice. We now find this article put up in barrels, as “P. D. Pepper,” “P. D. Ginger,” “P. D. Cloves,” and so on through the entire aromatic list. Different cities use different material for their pepper dust, using that which is most easily and, therefore, most cheaply obtained in their locality.
Fig. 20. Capsicum
Fig. 38. LINSEED
Fig. 39. PALM SEED
Fig. 40. EXTERIOR HUSK OF RAPE SEED
Fig. 44. PURE CAYENNE PEPPER
Fig. 45. CAYENNE PEPPER, ADULTERATED
CHAPTER III
HOW TO DETECT ADULTERATIONS IN SPICES—THEIR FORMATION AND ANALYSIS
AS far as its practical use to the merchant or consumer of spices is concerned, it would be as well, perhaps, if this chapter remained unwritten, and yet this treatise would be far from complete without it, as much of that which is herein contained is of the utmost importance, could it be put into practice.
In this chapter I attempt to give ways to detect adulterations, but the lamentable fact is that the general merchants have neither the time nor the facilities at hand to discover the foreign substance.
There are two principal ways of detecting adulterations in spices, which depend upon the difference in the structure of the cells between the adulterants and the true spice to which they are added, and also on their proximate composition. The former difference is recognized by the mechanical separation and by the use of the microscope, and the latter by chemical analysis. The adulterations found in spices may be classed in four grades:
First. Integuments of grains of seeds, such as bran of wheat and buckwheat, hulls of mustard seed, flax seed, etc.
Second. Farinaceous substances of low price, as spice damaged in transportation or by long storage, middlings, corn meal, and stale ship bread.
Third. Leguminous seeds, as peas and beans, which contribute largely to the profit of the mixer.
Fourth. Various articles chosen with reference to their suitableness to bring up the mixtures, as nearly as possible, to the required standard color of the genuine article; various shades from light colors to dark brown may be obtained by skillful roasting of the farinaceous and leguminous substances, and a little tumeric goes a long way to give a rich yellow color to real mustard made from pale counterfeit of wheat flour and terra-alba, or the defective paleness of artificial black pepper is brought to the desired tone by judicious sifting in of a finely pulverized charcoal.
From what has been said of the different foreign substances used for adulterations of spices and condiments, the necessity of knowing the structure and formation of the molecules of both principal and foreign elements which constitute the principal tissues of the particular plant-parts used for the adulterations is apparent, while in the chemical examination the principle of proximate analysis must be understood and applied.
It is also necessary that the analyst should be thoroughly acquainted with the application of the microscope, to determine the cellular structure, to make determinations of proximate principles in the substances under examination, since a mechanical separation by the microscope is more expeditious and is more at the command of the majority of persons searching for adulterations. For a mechanical analysis of food separations, a powerful microscope of good workmanship is required. It is better if it is supplied with a substance condenser and Nical prisms for the use of polarized light. Objectives of an inch and half inch, and, for some starches, one-fifth inch, equivalent focus, are sufficient. One eye-piece of medium depth, one-fourth to one-sixth, adjusted at 160 degrees is enough, with plenty of good light. The analyst should also have plenty of sieves of 40 to 60 meshes to the inch to be used for separation, which will furnish means of detecting adulterants and selecting particles for investigation, and will often reveal the presence of foreign material without further examination, since many adulterants are not ground so fine as the spices to which they are added, and by passing the mixtures through the sieves the coarser particles remaining will be either recognized at once by an unaided educated eye or with a pocket lens.
In this way, tumeric is readily separated from mustard and yellow corn meal; mustard hulls and cayenne, from low-grade pepper. Where a pocket lens is insufficient, the higher power of the microscope is confirmatory. It is also desirable to be provided with a dissecting microscope for selecting particles for examination from large masses of ground spice, and for this a large Zeiss stand, made for that purpose, is best, but simpler forms, or even a hand lens, will answer the purpose. For smaller apparatus, a few beakers, watch crystals, stirring rods, and specimen tubes, with bottles for reagents, will be sufficient, in addition to the ordinary glass slides and covers for glasses. The reagents required for chemical analysis (if no great amount is used) are as follows:
Strong alcohol,
Ammonia,
Chloral-hydrate solution—8 parts to 5 of water,
Glycerine,
Iodine solution—water 15 parts, iodide of potash 20 parts, iodine 5 parts; water distilled.
Balsam in benzol and glycerine jelly are desirable for mounting media, and some wax sheets will be needed for making cells. In addition, the analyst should supply himself with specimens of whole spices, starches, and known adulterants, which may be used to become acquainted with the forms and appearances to be expected; it is easier to begin one’s study in this way on sections prepared with the knife, and afterwards the powdered substance may be taken up.
To study the physiological structure in the spices and their adulterants is quite difficult, as the vegetable tissues which make up the structure of the spices and the materials of a vegetable origin which are added as adulterations consist of cells of different forms and thickness; those which are most prominent and common are the parenchyma, the sclerenchyma fibrous tissue, and the fibro-vascular bundles. Spiral and dotted vessels are also common in several of the adulterants, and in the epidermis are other forms of tissue which it is necessary to be well acquainted with, though not physiologically. The parenchyma is the most abundant tissue in all material of vegetable origin, making up the largest proportion of the main part of the plant. It is composed of thin wall cells which may be recognized in the potato and in the interior of the stems of maize. In the latter plant, also, the fibro-vascular system is well exemplified, running as scattered bundles between the nodes or joints. Fibrous tissue consists of elongated thick-walled cells of fibers which are very common in the vegetable kingdom and are well illustrated in flax, but they are not so commonly used for adulterating purposes. They are optically active, and in the shorter forms they somewhat resemble the cells next described. They are seen in one of the coats of buckwheat hulls and in the outer husks of the cocoanut.
The sclerenchyma is found in the shells of many nuts and in one or two of the spices, the cells being known as stone cells, from the great thickening of their walls. To them is due the hardness of the shell of the cocoanut, the pits of the olive, etc. (See [Fig. 1.]) Spiral and dotted vessels are common in woody tissue and are readily recognized. All these forms an analyst should make himself familiar with.
In pepper and mustard the parenchyma cells are prominent in the interior of the berry, while those constituting the outer coats are indistinct in the pepper, because of their deep color; but in the mustard are characteristics of this particular species. In fact, in many of the spices, and especially those which are seeds, the forms of the epidermal cells are very striking, and, if no attempt is made to classify them their peculiarities must be carefully noted, as the recognition of the presence of foreign husky matter depends upon a knowledge of the normal appearance in any spice.
The fibro-vascular bundles are most prominent in ginger and in the barks, while in the powdered spices they are found as stringy particles. The sclerenchyma, or stone cells, as shown in [Fig. 1], are common in the adulterant, especially in cocoanut shells, where may also be seen numerous spiral cells, and in the exterior coats of fibrous tissue. As to aids to distinguish these structures, the following peculiarities may be cited:
Fig. 1. STONE CELLS
Fig. 2. STARCH STAINED WITH IODINE
Fig. 3. Starch, plain
Fig. 4. POTATO STARCH
Fig. 5. Potato
The stone cells and fibrous tissue are optically active, and are, therefore, readily detected with polarized light, shining out in the dark field of the microscope as silver-white or yellowish bodies.
The fibro-vascular bundles are stained deep orange brown with iodine, owing to the nitrogenous matter which they contain, while parenchyma is not affected by this reagent, aside from the cell contents, nor has it any action on polarized light, remaining quite invisible in the field with crossed prisms.
Next to cellular tissue, starch is the most important element for consideration in the plant, which possesses an organized structure and is distinguished by its reaction with iodine solution, which gives it a deep blue or blackish-blue color, varying somewhat with different kinds of starch and with the strength of the reagent, and its absence is marked by no blue color under the same circumstances.
Heat, however, as in the process of baking, so alters starches, converting them into dextrine and related bodies, that they give a brown color with iodine, instead of a blue-black; they are no longer starch, however; their form, not being essentially changed, permits of their identification, with a study of the size and shape of the granules of the hilum, or central depressions of nucleus, and the prominence and position of the rings. By polarized light and selenite, the starches of tubers showed a more varied play of colors than the cereal and leguminous starches which are produced above ground. The starches we are to consider are those of a limited number to be met with in spices and their adulterants, and one must be able readily to recognize the following:
STARCH NATURAL TO SPICES AND CONDIMENTS
Ginger,
Pepper,
Nutmegs,
Cassia,
Pimento,
Cinnamon,
Cayenne.
STARCHES OF ADMIXTURES
Wheat and other Cereals:
Corn,
Oats,
Barley,
Potato.
Maranata and other arrowroots:
Rice,
Beans,
Peas,
Sago,
Buckwheat.
No one of these is complete in itself, but from the characters given, and with the aid of illustrations, the starches which commonly occur in substances which are here considered may usually be identified without difficulty.
For the benefit of those who have had no experience with the microscope, I will give the following directions:
Take a small portion of the starch or spice to be examined upon a clean camel’s hair brush and dust it upon a common slide, blow the excess away and moisten that retained with a drop of a mixture of equal parts of glycerine and water, or with glycerine and camphor water, and cover with a glass. It is well to have a small supply of the common starches in a series of tubes which can be mounted at any moment and used for comparison. They may be permanently mounted by making with cork borers, of two sizes, a wax cell ring equal to the diameter of the cover glass and, after cementing the cell to the slide with copal varnish thinned with turpentine and introducing the starch and glycerine mixture, fixing the cover glass on after running some of the cement over the top of the ring. A little experience will enable one to put the right amount of liquid in the cell and to make a preparation that will keep for some time. After several months, however, it is hard to distinguish the rings which mark the development of the granule, and it is better to keep it fresh.
For other purposes, the starches should be mounted in prepared Canada Balsam, or by well-known methods in which they may be preserved indefinitely, but they are scarcely visible with ordinary illumination and must be viewed by polarized light, which will bring out distinctive characters not seen as well, or not at all, in the other mounts. When mounted in the manner described, in glycerine and water, or in water alone, if for temporary use, under a microscope with one objective of equivalent focus of one-half to one-fifth inch, and with means for oblique illumination, the starches will display characteristics which are illustrated in [Figs. 2, 3, and 4]. The illustrations have been drawn from Nature; Fig. 2 gives starch stained with iodine; Fig. 3 gives shape and size of plain starch, and presence or absence of a nucleus, or hilum, and of the rings and their arrangements which can be made out. The starch is classed in its proper place.
If mounted in balsam, their appearance is scarcely visible under any form of illumination with ordinary light, the index refraction of the granules and the balsam being so similar, but when polarized light is used the effect is a striking one. (See [plates of ginger], where it is easy to distinguish all the characteristics, except the rings, the center of the cross being at the nucleus of the granule.)
The principal starches which are met with may be described as follows in connection with illustrations given, beginning with those of the arrowroot class, including potato, ginger, and tumeric.
Fig. 6. & Fig. 7. POTATO STARCH
Fig. 8. MARUNTA STARCH
Fig. 9. Fig. 10. MARUNTA