• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 450 0

and moisture, the same qualities that make the microwave so popular today From the first, Papin had imagined it in the kitchen and was disappointed when it was used instead as an industrial sterilizer. Far ahead of his time, he was also working on designs for a submarine and a grenade launcher, as well as a steam engine, as was James Watt at about the same time. Watt based his early versions on Papin’s pressure cooker and eventually laid the groundwork for what became the Industrial Revolution. Papin himself died in poverty in London in 1712.

APRICOTS

Apricots first grew wild in the mountains of China and have been cultivated there for over four thousand years. They migrated west and were called “eggs of the sun” in Persia and praecocium—meaning “precocious” and the origin of the word “apricot”—by the Romans because they ripened so early in the spring. They actually turn orange before they are fully ripe and may be mistakenly picked too early, before their flavor has completely matured. They also come in white, pink, gray, and even black, and vary in size from that of a cranberry to that of a softball.

Less than five percent of apricots are eaten fresh. The others are canned or, more popularly, dried. Turkey and California, where they were introduced by the Spanish explorers and planted by the missionaries, produce the most. California apricots are cut in half before drying, while the Turkish are dried whole after the pit has been removed. Sun-drying on trays for about three days is the best way to preserve both color and taste. They are loaded with vitamin A and provide as much roughage as their cousin, the prune.

POMPEII

Until Vesuvius erupted on this day in 79 A.D., Pompeii, a resort town on the coast near Naples, was known for its fish sauces, its cabbage, and its luxurious villas. There were forty bakeries, many producing the traditional round loaves still made in the area. Nearby were cultivated oyster beds and shellfish that produced the deep purple dye used for royal togas. There were elaborate wineries with machinery to press and strain grapes and shops to sell what was made.

When the volcano began to erupt, many of the twenty thousand inhabitants of Pompeii fled immediately. Those who lingered—some two thousand of them—were asphyxiated by sulfurous fumes or buried in the spewing pumice, ash, and lava. Among them was Pliny, commander of Roman ships based nearby in the Bay of Naples, who sailed across to Pompeii to rescue friends. They tied pillows on top of their heads to protect themselves from the rain of rock, but as they made their way to the ship, Pliny was overcome by fumes, collapsed, and died in the street.

Pompeii’s great gladiatorial arena, its two theaters, taverns, public baths, and brothels all became tombs. When excavation began almost seventeen hundred years later, everything uncovered was just as it had been during those last minutes before the devastation: bottles of wine, a kind of pizza, fruit and nuts on the tables, toilet articles, kitchen utensils. There were more than three thousand frescoes, many of the most decorative in the dining rooms, depicting scenes from the lives of gods and goddesses. The entryways of houses had mosaics of pets, with the words cave canem, “beware of dog,” but the danger came from elsewhere.

FIGS IN WHISKEY

There was a one-star restaurant in Plaisance in southwest France where we had dinner with a descendant of the man on whom Dumas based his fictional d’Artagnan. Dessert was delicious, plump figs in a syrupy alcoholic liquid. The chef, Maurice Coscuella, appeared in the dining room to make a round of the tables and greet the customers. We asked about the fig recipe. It was his own, he said. He admired the glasses, a ten-dollar pair from an American drugstore, that Jim had put on to read the bill. Just what he needed, Coscuella said. Where could he find them? We’d send him a pair, we said. In the meantime, he gave us his recipe, which we’ve often served:

FIGS IN WHISKEY

1 package dried figs

2 cups sugar

1 ½ cups Scotch whiskey