Life Is Meals_ A Food Lover's Book of Days - James Salter [44]
In France, Dijon became the center of mustard making in the 14th century, and by the mid-15th century, Louis XI was traveling with his own pot of it. The process and the ingredients have been regulated since that time, and white wine and the juice of unripened grapes are used instead of vinegar. It was here that Antoine Maille developed his mustards and vinegars in the 18th century and where in the next, Maurice Grey invented the Poupon mustard he named for himself.
Across the Channel in England at about the same time, Jeremiah Coleman was popularizing his brand of dry mustard, using an old technique of making a powder of the seeds. The powder was then mixed with water when needed, producing a far stronger mustard than the French and rivaled for bite only by the Chinese.
SPOONS
In prehistoric times, people used shells as spoons, and both the Greek and Latin words for spoon come from cocklea, which meant “a kind of shell.” The English word—a pleasure to say, making a sound almost like a description of the object itself—is from the word spon, meaning “a small piece of wood,” which was also used as an early spoon. If the shell or bit of wood was fastened to a stick, it gave a longer reach into hot liquids when cooking or eating. In ancient times there were two forms—an oval, often with a point on the end, and a round bowl, used especially for eating eggs.
Most broths, however, were drunk directly from a bowl, usually shared with others. If the broth contained meat or vegetables, they were pulled out with the fingers. It wasn’t until almost the 17th century that the upper classes began to adopt a new approach to complement the latest fashions. High lace collars and long lace cuffs made it nearly impossible to use the old method without the food ending up on the clothes. Spoons were the answer, and it was common to bring your own to a meal.
Owning enough utensils to supply the guests who came to dine became a measure of wealth and social standing. At first they were usually made of valuable materials, and later often of silver. Being “born with a silver spoon in one’s mouth” actually reflected family position. It was only after lesser metals began to be used that people of more modest incomes could afford them.
VICTORY IN EUROPE
Dinners can end abruptly. On VE Day, May 8, 1945, a family named Graham was sitting around their kitchen table in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, celebrating the return home that day of their son, who had been a prisoner of war in Europe. As it grew late, they heard the sound of an airplane passing low overhead in the darkness. It receded, then came back again and again. It seemed, perhaps, a tribute of some sort to their son. On the third approach of the plane, they went out into the street to look.
The AT-6 was piloted by nineteen-year-old James Salter, flying a solo training mission. The winds aloft had pushed him, along with other student pilots, drastically off course, and he was lost late at night, with very little fuel remaining, desperately looking for a place large enough to land. Below him was a black expanse that could have been a lake, or, if he was lucky, a field. He dropped lower, flying just above the ground to try to see. Suddenly, looming ahead of him at the end of what turned out to be a park, were tall trees. He banked to fly through them, but just beyond were even bigger ones. His wing hit one and tore off. Immediately ahead was a house.
The Grahams had just reached the street when the plane slammed nose-first into the kitchen.
Jim lost a tooth and some dignity. The mayor of Great Barrington put him up at his house that night. He wasn’t washed out of the training program and went on to become