THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF MACE
The nature of the principal constituent of mace can be found from the following experiments:
Seventeen grammes of finely pulverized mace were entirely exhausted by boiling ether and the solvent left to spontaneous evaporations. The residue, amounting to 5.57 grammes after dessications at 100 degrees C., was reduced in weight to 4.17, the loss 1.40 grammes being the essential oil, which was 8.2 per cent. The residue, amounting to 24.5 per cent., was thick, aromatic balsam in which we can find no trace or presence of fat, but, instead, it consisted of resin and semi-resinified aromatic oil. Alcohol extracts from this 1.4 per cent. of uncrystallizable sugar, which may be reduced by cupric oxide. The drug after this treatment with alcohol and ether yields scarcely anything to cold water, but boiling water extracts 1.8 per cent. of mucilage, which takes a blue color if treated with iodine, or a reddish-violet if previously dried. This test shows that it has qualities quite different from those of nutmegs. This substance is not soluble in an ammoniacal solution of cupric oxide; it seems rather to be an intermediary body between gum and starch, and may be called amylodextrin.[[7]] It is distinguished from the true starch by being stained reddish brown instead of blue by an aqueous solution of iodine; the grains of amylodextrin[[7]] do not appear to contain even a nucleus of starch. As seen under the microscope, they have usually somewhat the form of a rod and are often curved or coiled; less often they are roundish or disc-shaped; they do not usually exhibit any evident stratification.
[7]. Amyloceous, starchy.
Chemical composition:
| Water, | 5.67 |
| Ash, | 4.10 |
| Volatile Oil, | 4.04 |
| Resin, | 27.50 |
| Undetermined, | 41.17 |
| Crude Fiber, | 8.93 |
| Albuminoids, | 4.55 |
| Nitrogen, | .73 |
The city of Macassar, Celebes, exported during the first nine months of the year 1905, $4,520.61 worth of mace; and Padang, Sumatra, exported $1,617.17 during the same time. The city of Singapore exported $22,710.12 worth during the year 1904.
MUSTARD
1 Flowering stem with leaves
2 Flower
3 Pod
4 Yellow seed
5 Black seed
CHAPTER XIV
MUSTARD
You are an appetizer prime,
And a friend in time of pain.
What did they do without you, pray,
Before Old Lady Clements’ time?
FRENCH, Moutarde; German, Senf; Portuguese, Mustarda; Spanish, Maszaza.
The mustard of commerce is the seed, whole or powdered, of the several species of the genus brassica (or sinapis) of the mustard family. They are (cruciferous) plants which grow wild, or cinnamon charlock, and are cultivated under various conditions.
Mustard dates back through a number of centuries, and the mustard tree, spoken of in Luke XIII, 19, which attains a height of ten or even fifteen feet in Palestine, was probably the true mustard, brassica (sinapis) nigra, according to Ragle and others. The tree meant is Salvadora Persica, a small tree bearing minute berries with pungent seeds which bear the name in Arabic of mustard. Hippocrates used it in medicine under the name of vanuit.
In the time of Queen Elizabeth, the Dutch were employed to throw out the earth from the eighty-foot dyke to drain the farms of Lincolnshire, Norfolk, and Cambridgeshire, which were covered with water and had been the habitation of wild fowls. This dirt was found to contain small brown seeds which, on being exposed to the sun and air, sprouted and grew into plants, producing a yellow blossom which proved to be mustard.
The two common varieties are the black or brown mustard, known as (brassica sinapis nigra), and the white seed, as it is called, although of a yellow color (brassica sinapis alba), usually found in whole mixed spices. The Indian wild brown mustard seed (rai or charlock juncea Sarepta brassica), taking the name Sarepta from the city of that name in Russia, in the government of Saratov, is sometimes offered as the black mustard. Sinapis glauca and sinapis ramosa yield a white seed found in South Russia and in the steppes northeast of the Caspian Sea. Mustard is known by every farmer and is an annual herb (see [illustration]), from three to six feet high, with lyrate leaves, yellowish flower, and slender pods containing round seed; it may be grown almost anywhere.
As only a few kinds of mustard seed are known to commerce, we will confine our history principally to the black seed, which is yellow within (brassica nigra), and which furnishes the most aroma. The seeds are very small and do not weigh more than one-fiftieth of a grain, while the seed of brassica alba, or the white seed, as it is called, is three times as large as the black.
Mustard seed is found in almost all of Europe, except the most northern part, in Northern Africa, Asia Minor, the United States, Mesopotamia, the West Indies, South Siberia, and China. It is naturalized in North and South America, and is cultivated to a great extent in Bohemia, Holland, and Italy, and in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, England. It is generally put up for market in bags of 200 pounds each. Much of the black seed ([Fig. 5]) comes from California, and is brought to the Eastern market by railroads; much comes also from Kentucky. Each of these States produce large crops, and the New York Spice Mills use large quantities of it on account of its being cheaper than the imported. It does not contain as much flour as the yellow seed, but it is sweeter. The best dark seed comes from Italy and is exported from the city of Trieste, Austria, and is called Trieste mustard. (See [illustration].) It is often sent by the Mediterranean Sea to London, and from there is transferred to New York vessels, although some comes direct from Bombay and Sicily.
The yellow or large, plump, straw-colored, rough, hairy seed ([Fig. 4]) is much less remunerative than the black, smooth seed; is white inside, and, though a native of Asia, is found in Russia and Africa. The best of it comes from England, and is often called English mustard.
TRIESTE, AUSTRIA
The Dutch seed is considered next grade in quality to the English. In China and some parts of Europe a species is cultivated for greens for the table, which are prepared in the same way as spinach.
The great aim of the grower is to produce reddish-brown seed, without any intermixture of gray. The gray color of the seed is attributed to the influence of the rains during the ripening. The presence of this color greatly lowers the value of the seed.
The crop requires very little tillage. The seed is sown broadcast, in the month of April, at the rate of one bushel to an acre. The harvesting will take place in June and July. The land is sufficiently seeded to produce two crops, which are sometimes gathered in one year. A yield of forty bushels to an acre is not uncommon. The seed weighs sixty pounds to the bushel.
Mustard was first introduced as a table condiment in the year 1720 by an old lady named Clements, residing in Durham. It is from this fact that the well-known Durham mustard takes its name. She prepared it in a crude form by grinding the seed in a small hand mill. The product was nothing more than the crushed seed. This was passed through mesh sieves to separate the bran from the husk. The secret of this process she kept for many years.
Mustard was used as a medicine by the ancients and is spoken of in history by Theophrastus and Galen and others. Its use as a condiment is spoken of by Shakespeare in “Taming of the Shrew,” Act IV, Scene III. The mustard which was made in the time of King George, who gave it his approval, was made from the wild charlock S. arvensis and was prepared by Lady Clements.
But as manufacturing gradually developed, in order to cater to public taste, the seed meal has been changed to the genuine mustard of to-day, which is the farina or flour of the black or white mustard seed, made from the interior of the seed, which is separated from the outer coat or shell.
Mustard seed contains so much oil that it cannot be ground on common burr stones. It is prepared for market by first passing it through a winnowing machine to remove the dust and any other foreign material; it is next crushed by passing it between rollers; then it is placed in silk bags made for that purpose, and the volatile oil is extracted by hydraulic pressure. After the cake is dried it is put into pots and is stamped or pounded by a system of battery pounding, or by means of roller mills, in which the pounders vary in number from two to four, eight, twelve, or sixteen. The pounding or stamping continues until the cake is reduced to the consistency of soft middlings, or to the required powder. It is next scooped out into a trough and more cake is put into the pots. The stamping continues until all the cake is used up. Then it is scooped for bolting on sieves made of silk cloth of fine or coarse mesh, as required, which are set in frames and given a shaking motion by an upright shaft, the meal falling into a receptacle below. The quality of powdered mustard varies much, according to the quality of the mustard seed. Prime seed yields 50 to 60 per cent. of flour, and poor seed will run as low as 28 per cent. It does not pay to prepare poor seed, as the time lost in its preparation would not make up for the cheapness of it.
The operation of properly reducing mustard seed requires expert handling, and it can easily be ruined by incompetent operators. More than 50 or 60 per cent. of meal might be taken out at the first sifting, but to do so the bran would have to be chopped up so fine that some would pass through the sieve and spoil the appearance of the flour. The flour which is taken out at the first sifting is called superfine. If no more could be obtained from the seed than the superfine flour, it is very clear that the mustard flour would cost nearly or quite twice as much as the cake, with all the labor added. But to save this extra cost the miller often adds to the remaining bran or tailings an equal quantity of good wheat flour, and also 1 per cent. of good Cayenne pepper, and sufficient color (tumeric) to give the same tinge as that of pure mustard. Pound this as before and by the same process, the flour remaining is separated from the bran and united with the wheat flour. In passing through the sieve, 75 per cent. of the compound may be extracted. This product, which is better than most of the adulterated, is called fine. Nearly all of the wheat flour will pass through the sieves, and about 25 per cent. of the mustard and this 25 per cent. of bran is treated as before. As the wheat flour is increased, the hulls or bran will be less apt to affect the appearance of the mustard. This is called seconds. It is admitted that much of the good property of the mustard is in the bran, and, after all, it is only necessary to extract it to satisfy a popular prejudice as to what a fine, yellow color pure mustard ought to have. This notion is often wrong, just as coloring butter to please the eyes is wrong. These mixtures may all be mixed and powdered together, if rightly colored, and again bolted to make various grades, or, with experience in the use of a mill and an acquaintance with the nature of the particular kind of seed or the quality of the pressed cake, it may be powdered from the start, if sufficient adulteration is added to the cake. Thus a grade combining all the qualities may be made at one operation. This process reduces the labor to a minimum. After the sifting is completed there will remain a residue in the sieves, which is called dressing. This is used in wet mustard or French mustard, as it is known to the consumer. It is sometimes used by pickle manufacturers.