Life Is Meals_ A Food Lover's Book of Days - James Salter [3]
Balzac was in the habit of drinking up to thirty cups a day while writing for twelve-hour stretches, producing his vast body of fiction as he tried to scramble out of debt. Dead at fifty, the cause wasn’t coffee, though medical authorities today more or less agree that four cups a day is about as many as most people can consume before experiencing the side effects of excessive caffeine.
TWELFTH NIGHT
Twelfth Night, the twelfth night after Christmas, is the eve of Epiphany, marking the arrival of the Three Wise Men who had seen the star on the night Jesus was born and followed it to Bethlehem.
The church didn’t officially designate December 25 as the birthday of Jesus until 336 A.D., and chose the time of year to coincide with already immensely popular pagan celebrations. Twelfth Night, for example, grew out of much older rituals that marked the winter solstice, when the days started getting longer again, and the ancients, for twelve days, celebrated the return of the sun.
Some of the customs practiced by the pagans during this season are still part of post-Christmas celebrations all over the world, including a Twelfth Night cake. A bean was baked into the cake, and whoever got that slice became king for the night. Today in France and Spain, the galette des rois, “cake of kings,” and the gastel à fève orroriz, “cake with the king’s bean,” are still served, during the holidays, as is the Dreikönigskuchen, “the three kings’ cake,” in Switzerland and Germany, conferring good luck on the one who gets the special token.
SALT
Salt appears in the Bible as well as in the works of Homer, who described nations as poor when they did not use salt in their food, and the word itself is found in almost identical form in many languages: sel, sal, salz, sale, sol’, salt, etc. The word “salary” comes from the salt that was part of Roman soldiers’ pay or that they bought with a special allowance.
Mined or drawn from seawater by evaporation, salt has been essential to life, as well as to the taste of food, which it enhances, bringing out the deep-lying flavors. It dehydrates certain vegetables—tomatoes, cucumbers, and especially eggplant—and brightens the color of others—spinach and green beans if it is in the cooking water. Through thousands of years it has been crucial to the preservation of food.
When roasting or sautéing meat, it has long been held that salt should be used only after browning so that the juices will not be drawn out, though not all cooks agree. It should always be used in pasta water, and a pinch of it, oddly enough, brings out the sweetness of pineapple and grapefruit.
About ¼ ounce is the daily human requirement, although the modern diet may provide several times this amount, and medical advice has been to keep salt intake low, particularly for older people and those with certain health problems such as high blood pressure or diseases of the heart, liver, or kidneys.
Rock salt comes from mining, and sea salt—which chefs often prefer for its taste—from evaporation. Kosher salt has no additives, but table salt often does, to provide iodine and to prevent sticking due to dampness.
“The best smell is bread, the best taste is salt,” Graham Greene wrote, adding, “and the best love is that of children.”
RUTH CLEVELAND
1904. Ruth Cleveland, daughter of President Grover Cleveland, dies on this day at age thirteen of diphtheria, four years before her father. They lie near one another in Princeton Cemetery in New Jersey Born between her father’s two terms, she had been adored by the public, and a candy bar was even named for her: Baby Ruth.
IMPORTANCE OF MEALS
The edicts of a Chinese emperor are said to have begun, “The world is based on agriculture,” and food has shaped human society since the very beginning. Eating is a process more vital than sex and the need more recurrent. The rhythm of working and eating defines the life of every individual, and the dizzying