Lesson 31 Plants Useful for Food (Ⅴ)

Spices

We have now to deal with another very useful class of vegetable products, distinguished by their powerful aromatic odor and pungent flavor, and known by the common name of spices. It is to these special properties that they owe their importance. They are valuable as flavorers. Chief among them are the clove, nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, ginger, pepper, and allspice.

The clove is the dried flower-bud of a kind of myrtle-tree. The tree itself is a very beautiful ever-green, which grows four or five times as high as a man.

When the flower-buds first appear they are of a pale yellow color, but they gradually pass to green, and finally to a bright red. As soon as they begin to turn red, and before they open into actual flower, they are plucked and dried in the sun. When dried, they assume the dark brown color with which we are familiar. The little round knob or ball at the end of the clove is the actual corolla of the flower folded up. The name clove is given from the Latin davits, a nail, because the clove is said to resemble a little nail.

Cloves are used by the cook and confectioner for flavoring purposes. When pressed they yield a useful volatile oil, known as oil of cloves, which is largely employed in perfumery and medicine.

The clove is a native of the Moluccas or Spice Islands, but it is now grown in Sumatra, the Mauritius, Zanzibar, Brazil, and the West Indies.

The nutmeg, another valuable spice, is the seed of an evergreen tree, which is a native of the Moluccas, and is now grown in most of the East India Islands, in the West Indies, and in South America.

The fruit when ripe is a rich golden yellow, and something like a peach. Indeed, it is a kind of stone-fruit. The outer fleshy part encloses the stone, the hard brown shell of which contains a round nut or kernel—the actual nutmeg. As the fruit ripens the outer fleshy covering splits, and then may be seen the dark brown, almost black shell of the kernel, enclosed within a leafy-looking network of a brilliant red color.

This is the time for gathering. The fleshy outside part is not unlike candied fruit, and is preserved and eaten as a sweetmeat. The bright red network-covering is stripped from the shell and dried. As it dries it assumes a yellow color; it is the mace of commerce, in itself a distinctive and very useful spice.

The nuts, with the mace removed, are carefully dried in the sun, until the kernels begin to shrink, and can be heard to rattle in the shell. The shells are then broken with wooden mallets, and the kernels—the actual nutmegs— sorted for use.

The smallest of the nutmegs are not sent into the market. They are pressed, and made to yield a valuable volatile oil, known in commerce both as oil of mace and oil of nutmeg.

Cinnamon, which we have next to consider, is neither the flower-bud nor the fruit. It is the inner bark of another tropical evergreen. The best cinnamon is grown in Ceylon, but it is now to some extent cultivated in China and South America.

The tree is usually grown from seed, and the branches are cut when they are from two to three years old. They are then about the size of an ordinary cane. The bark is peeled off with a knife, and laid in the sun to dry. As it dries it turns brown, and curls up into little rolls as we usually see it. Cinnamon is a very valuable spice, and is largely used in cookery, confectionery, and perfumery.

Ginger is the underground stem of a plant, something like a common reed, which is cultivated in most tropical countries. It was originally a native of Southern Asia and the adjoining islands, but is now largely grown also in the West Indies. The ginger of Jamaica fetches the best market prices. A delicious sweetmeat is made by preserving the young shoots in sugar-syrup. It is known as candied or preserved ginger.

Although pepper may be regarded rather as a condiment than a spice, it is usually classed among the spices.

Pepper is the berry of a climbing shrub, which, although a native of the East Indies, is now cultivated in most tropical countries.

We use the berries whole as well as ground. Black pepper and white pepper come from the same berry. If the dried berry is ground as it is, we get black pepper; white pepper is obtained by soaking the berries in water, and rubbing off the black outer covering.

Allspice is the berry of an evergreen shrub—the pimento; it is sometimes called Jamaica pepper. It is grown in that island and the other West India Islands, and in South America. The name allspice is given to the berry because it is said to have the flavor of cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon combined.