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Spinach is to chop it up finely, and stew it in butter; if it be cooked in water this water will have a strong smell. A French physician styles Spinach "le balai de l'estomac," "the broom of the stomach"; people know the plant in France as 66 Epinards," whilst containing a small quantity of sorrel salt, the binoxalate of potash; they like it with much butter, and call it therefore "la mort au beurre." Their epicures teach "when eating it not forget the nutmeg." Brillat Savarin never had Spinach served to him on a Friday unless it had been cooked the Sunday before, and put each day over the fire with a fresh addition of butter. A wild species of Spinach, the "Good King Henry," or Margery, grows about rural England, particularly in Lincolnshire, where it is popular as a pot-herb in most cottage gardens. Another excellent way of dressing the ordinary Spinach is to "wash your Spinach well, break off the leaves, boil (without adding water, or only a drain) until tender, dry, chop fine, and fry in butter until thoroughly done; add a tablespoonful of white sugar, and mix thoroughly; place in a dish some toasted bread cut into small squares, and put these on the Spinach, or else some slices of hard-boiled egg." To make Extract of Spinach : "Comminute in a mortar one pound of Spinach, and when it is quite a paste, place it on a strong cloth, roll it up, and twist the opposite ends so as to wring the cloth, and Spinach, and express the juice; (for making it more easy to twist the cloth use two cooking spoons as levers, -one at each end.) Then place the extracted juice in a pan, and heat it until the chlorophyllin, and the albumin are coagulated; next drain off the water, and work it through a tammy." It was with a delicate offering of gammon (of pork), and Spinach, in his hands, Mr. Anthony Roley, of Nursery fame, went a-wooing, calamitous as to its result. "Ranula furtivos statuebat quærere amores; Me miserum! tristi Rolius ore gemit:
Ranula furtivos statuebat quærere amores, Mater sive daret, sive negaret iter."
SPIRITS (See ALCOHOL).
THE several Spirits-Brandy, Gin, Rum, and Whisky, (which see) are obtained by the fermentation of various saccharine substances, their alcohol, and other volatile bodies thus produced, being separated by distillation. It is to the various bye-products which make their appearance during the fermenting process that the characteristic flavour of the different spirits is due. Thus the bye-products of the fermentation of malted barley give rise to the flavour of Whisky; those of molasses to the flavour of Rum; and those of the grape to that of Brandy. By means of patent stills these bye-products can be almost entirely separated from the alcohol with which they are mixed; and the result is a nearly pure form of spirit, the origin whereof can scarcely be discriminated; for which reason it is called "Silent Spirit." By suitable "flavouring the artful manufacturer can make this the basis of almost any spirituous drink"-(Dr. R. Hutchison). Amongst the substances commonly used for alcoholic fermentation in this country are malted, and unmalted barley, maize, rice, sugar, and molasses. The most valuable spirit for giving to sick persons, when really needed, is Brandy, provided it be genuine, which article is rare in this country. "The greater part of it," says Dr. Hutchison, "is spuriously concocted (actually in the Cognac district of France) from "silent spirit," whilst coloured with burnt sugar, and flavoured with enanthine, or with various essences. But such a product is entirely different from genuine Brandy, since it is quite devoid of those volatile ethers derived from wine (in the true Brandy) to which the real Cognac owes most of the beneficial results it is capable of producing in sickness. Likewise the possession of these volatile ethers in large amount is that which mainly distinguishes Brandy from Whisky; as regards alcoholic strength the two are about equal." For Sloe Gin, as a noted astringent cordial of wide repute, a certain Mr. Nathanael Gubbins, at Chichester, used to possess a priceless prescription. Annually, on October 20th, a "Sloe" Fair (as thus interpreted) is held in that venerable city. Sloe jelly and Sloe puddings are much affected by the natives. But originally this October Fair was a "Slo" Fair (old English, sloh, to slaughter), when the beasts were sold for killing, that they might be salted down to provide meat through the winter.
Two workable preparations sit inside this rambling entry: buttered spinach with sugar and croutons, and an "Extract of Spinach" for colouring. The material on brandy, gin and silent spirit is commentary, not method.
- No added waterThe whole point of the first method is that spinach cooks in the water still clinging to washed leaves. Use a wide pan with a lid over a low flame, and turn the leaves once or twice; a drain of water is insurance, not an ingredient.
- Quantity and yieldThe book gives no weight for the buttered spinach dish; the one pound is specified only for the Extract of Spinach. A pound of raw spinach collapses to roughly a cupful of chopped, cooked leaf and serves two as a side. The tablespoon of sugar reads as sweet to modern palates; a teaspoon is nearer current taste.
- Chop after cooking, not beforeThe instruction to boil, dry, chop and then fry is the correct order. Squeeze the cooked leaf firmly before chopping or the butter will not take, and the finished dish will sit in a green puddle.
- NutmegThe French rule quoted here still holds. Grate it over the spinach at the end of frying, not into the cooking water, where the aroma is lost.
- Do not follow Brillat-SavarinCooked spinach held from Sunday to Friday and warmed daily over the fire is not something to reproduce. Reheated spinach kept at room temperature is a well-known risk, particularly for nitrite formation and bacterial growth; cook it and eat it the same day.
- Extract of SpinachThis is a green colouring, not a dish. The juice is heated only until the chlorophyll and protein clot into a green curd, which is then drained and pressed. A "tammy" is a fine worsted straining cloth; a doubled square of muslin does the same work. Do not let the juice boil hard or the green turns olive.
- Good King HenryBlitum bonus-henricus, the wild potherb mentioned, is still grown occasionally but is not a supermarket item. Ordinary spinach substitutes directly; young leaves of chard will also do.
- OxalatesThe "sorrel salt" the author names is oxalate, present in spinach in real quantity. It is harmless in ordinary portions but is the reason spinach leaves that chalky feel on the teeth, and the reason it is restricted for anyone prone to kidney stones.
Meals Medicinal belongs to the late-Victorian genre that treated the larder as a dispensary, which is why a vegetable entry drifts into a lecture on brandy adulteration and a fair at Chichester. The spinach lore is largely borrowed: "le balai de l'estomac" and the injunction about nutmeg are often said to have circulated as French kitchen sayings, and the story of Brillat-Savarin's week-long spinach, enriched with fresh butter each day, is generally traced to the author of La Physiologie du Go u00fbt (1825). The Extract of Spinach is a professional confectioner's and cook's colouring, made in kitchens long before commercial food dyes: chlorophyll coagulated out of the juice gave the green for pistachio creams, herb butters and tinted sauces. The spirits section reflects a genuine anxiety of the 1890s and 1900s, when column-still "silent spirit" could be flavoured and coloured into anything, and doctors who still prescribed brandy at the sickbed worried, with reason, about what was actually in the bottle.