Condiments, Spices and Flavors

by Mary Elizabeth Green

Among condiments prepared from animal foods, those of the anchovy, lobster, shrimp, and Yarmouth bloater are the most common. The anchovy is a tiny, silvery fish, caught in the Mediterranean sea in vast quantities. The most famous come from Gorgona, a small island near Leghorn, where they are caught in nets as they come in from the deeper waters for the purpose of depositing spawn. Anchovies were used as a condiment by the most luxurious of the Romans, one preparation, called “garum,” consisting of the partly decomposed intestines of this fish mixed with spices. They are now exported for use as a condiment to all parts of the world, being preserved whole as well as in the form of pastes and essences. The pastes are prepared by pressing the fish through a sieve, simple flavorings and some oil being added. The essences consist of the fish steeped in a highly spiced brine or pickle, then strained and bottled. Essences of lobster, shrimp, and various fish are similarly prepared.

Various appetizing mixtures intended to give relish to meats, fish and soups, and composed of vegetables, fruits and divers spices, are known as sauces. “Roots, herbs, vine fruits and salad-flowers, they dish up various ways and find them a very delicious sauce to their meats, both roasted and boiled, fresh and salt.” No other sauce made compares with genuine East Indian chutney. It is a thick sauce, made from the mango apple, chilies, spices, lemon juice, raisins, figs, salt and sugar. Those most celebrated are the Bengal Club, Terhoot, Sweet Lucknow and a number of club chutneys. Trinidad chutney is particularly fine. Ceylon chutney is often slightly flavored with garlic. Another kind is “mango chutney, a characteristic Singalese condiment, among the ingredients of which are fresh, grated cocoanut and chilies carefully brayed together in a mortar. This chutney is of a rich roseate hue; and after eating it with his prawn curry the epicure feels like the Grand Turk.”

Carachi is a sauce little known in America, although, as it is much liked abroad, I give a recipe for its making, which sufficiently defines its character: one head of garlic, one dessert spoonful of cayenne pepper, three table spoonsful each, of soy, mushroom ketchup, walnut pickle, and mango pickle, five anchovies and a pint of vinegar.

Cassareep consists of the inspissated juice of the root of the bitter cassava, flavored with various spices. From the cassava, or manioc, is prepared tapioca and also cassava flour of which bread is made. The root is poisonous because of the prussic acid contained, this, however, being dissipated by heat. After the juice is extracted, it is boiled down to the color and consistency of molasses, after which spices are added. It is the basis of Worcestershire and many other sauces and is valuable in the flavoring of soups and ragouts. It is largely exported from British Guiana and is used throughout the tropics.

Worcestershire sauce is one of the commonest of table condiments. It is prepared from cassareep and varying proportions of spices, garlic, peppers, and lime-juice, according to the tastes of the various houses manufacturing it.

Both lime-juice and Devonshire sauces are similar in preparation and flavor to Worcestershire, the former being quite acid, owing to the greater proportion of lime-juice used.

Ketchup is a sauce made variously from tomatoes, mushrooms, walnuts, oysters, etc. It should be semi-fluid, about the consistency of a good purée and, although spices may be added, the original flavor of the basic ingredients must always be preserved. Color is one desideratum. In tomato ketchup the sauce is always made of the ripe tomato fruit, although, as the color is sometimes produced artificially, the only safeguard lies in purchasing of reliable manufacturers. The tomato ketchup is a typical American sauce, corresponding in our dietary with the mushroom ketchup of the English.

Soy or shoyu is in general use throughout the East, particularly in China and Japan, that from the latter country being acknowledged the finest made. One authority states that our word ketchup is derived from the Chinese name for soy, kitjap. The basis of soy, the soy bean, has been cultivated in Japan since the earliest dynasties, and is to-day one of their important crops. The different varieties of the soy bean produce three kinds of soy known as the black, the green and the white. The process of making soy consists in first boiling the beans and mixing them with parched barley and wheat, coarsely ground. This barm is fermented and when the whole mixture is covered with fungi it is mixed with brine of a certain strength, which has already been boiled and allowed to cool. This mixture is then kept for fermentation about twenty-five months. It is stirred with a wooden paddle twice a day during winter, three times a day in summer and, when sufficiently fermented, is put through a soy press. It is then heated to 130 degrees Fahrenheit and, after becoming cold again, is put up in bottles and casks. It may be preserved for any length of time. In appearance it resembles Worcestershire sauce and from a nutritive point of view is superior to any other sauce in our markets.

Soy is manufactured in every part of Japan, no fewer than 10,682 firms being engaged in making it in 1891. It is eaten by the entire Japanese population with every meal and, besides being a sauce, is sufficient as a salt. Used upon fish, beef-steaks and meats, generally, it gives a relish that is impossible to the choicest of cookery otherwise. In Japan it is used by all classes excepting the extremely destitute, who cannot afford to buy it.

Tabasco is a popular sauce, the chief ingredient of which is the pulp of the red pepper. This, a species of chili, came originally from Central America and through cultivation, largely carried on in the South, its strength and flavor have been greatly improved. The sauce is extremely hot with chilis and, as it keeps well in any climate, it is liked by connoisseurs.