by Tom Stobart
Under cultivation, the hop plants are encouraged to grow up strings or wires in hop yards or gardens. They are grown to some extent in most countries outside the tropics. The hop has separate male and female plants; it is the cone-shaped female flower that is dried and used in brewing. British hops have traditionally been fertilized, and the cones then produce seeds, but this is not the practice in Europe. Fertilization apparently is necessary to produce large cones from the traditional British varieties known as Geldings and Fuggles. (The demands of lager brewers have now made it necessary to have some areas in Britain in which all male hops have been eradicated.) Geldings, with a delicate flavour, are used particularly in pale ales and bitters, while Fuggles are better in general for mild ale and stout.
Since British home brewing became legally freed of restrictions, dried hops of many named varieties can now be bought in specialist shops. In buying hops, always look for samples warranted to be from the latest crop, and avoid old stuff. Like all dried herbs, hops tend to lose flavour with storage, especially if they have been exposed to the light. When freshly dried, hops have a pale yellow colour, and rubbing them between the palms of the hand makes them emit a bright, intensely aromatic smell, and particles of a waxy substance, lupulin (which gives the flavour), should stick to the fingers.
Hop-picking used to be an annual event for East End Londoners who travelled in thousands to the hop gardens of Kent, but today the work is mechanized. The cones are quickly removed from the vines and spread in a layer up to 60 cm (2 ft) thick on the cast house floor which is made of an open mesh – traditionally of horsehair – to allow hot air to rise through the hops. An exit for the now humid air is produced by a wind cowl, a well-known silhouette in hop growing areas. The drying heat is gradually increased for three hours and then kept constant until the hops are ready, about six hours later. In Britain, dried hops are traditionally stored in long sacks called ‘pockets’, but nowadays they may be powdered and compressed into small pellets. Hop extracts and hop oil are used by some brewers. Such essences reduce the skill the brewer needs to the minimum, but do not make the finest beers.
In hop-growing areas, young shoots are used in spring as a vegetable, but they can rarely be found in markets. Hop shoots are popular in Belgium and northern France, where they are known as jets or pointes de houblon. Basic preparation is to scrape the tender, young shoots lightly, rinse and plunge them into fast boiling, salted and slightly acidulated water. After being cooked until just tender, they are drained, heated in cream or butter, or used in the many recipes à l’anversoise (with eggs and so on). Wild hop shoots are eaten in Italy, particularly in a Venetian risotto, but they may be misleadingly described as wild asparagus. If the shoots are to be eaten cold as salad – as in Germany – they are best cooked tied in bundles like calabrese or asparagus. There are also old English recipes for hop shoots, particularly in 17th and 18th century books.
[Hops – French: houblon German: Hopfen Italian: luppolo Spanish: lúpulo]
HORSE. There are few recipes for horse meat in British or American cookery books, and many of the standard works do not even mention it On the other hand, most European countries admit it, although only in Belgium and northern France with any enthusiasm, but there are certainly restaurants in Italy (e.g. in Modena) where horse appears on the menu alongside the more usual meats. In Italy, horse-meat is prescribed raw for invalids. Since the horse is so far removed from the usual human food cycle, there are few parasites or diseases which man and horse have in common – horse is one of the safest of all raw meats.
The British love horses to the extent that they would rather eat the rider than eat the horse. Even the unsentimental Belgians, though, would have to admit that horses are less often bred for food, than for riding. Horse meat is rather sweet – which one does not notice in cheval bourguignon but would in other dishes. In Britain, horse butchers are synonymous with knackers and the meat they are selling is for dogs; in France, Italy and Spain there are horse-meat stalls and shops which offer respectable horse meat at about the same price as beef.
The word horse, applied to any foodstuff, means strong, big or coarse. Horse mackerel, for instance, are a large, inferior species of mackerel; horse mushrooms, a large, tough species of mushroom (Agaricus arvensis); horseradish is large, tough and exceedingly pungent in comparison to the ordinary salad radish.
[Horse – French: cheval German: Pferd Italian: cavallo Spanish: caballo]
HORSE BEAN. Alternative name for *broad bean and *jack bean.
HORSE GRAM, Madras gram or kulthi bean. Much grown as a pulse and eaten by the poor, especially in southern India. Its scientific name, Dolichos biflorus, shows it as a close relative of the *lablab bean. lt is eaten both green and as a pulse. The seeds are red, white, mottled or black, but most frequently reddish-brown. The bean is smaller and flatter than a pea. Horse gram is rarely if ever split, but is used whole. It may be soaked overnight, but the flavour is better if it is cooked without a prior soaking, although this takes longer – three hours or more. In India, this pulse is regarded as ‘heating’ and not very digestible.
HORSERADISH (Armoracia rusticana) is a cruciferous plant with large, usually wavy-edged leaves. A native of south-eastern Europe and western Asia which now grows wild in Britain, Europe, North America and New Zealand, it is cultivated for its pungently flavoured tap-root. For use, this is scrubbed clean and any discoloured bits are cut out before the outer part, which has the strongest taste, is finely grated or scraped off; the core is discarded. Horseradish is used as a cold garnish or flavouring and is added to mayonnaise to go with fish or salads. Horseradish sauces, which are usually uncooked or at most cooked or warmed very gently, tend to contain cream and vinegar or (in France) lemon juice. The flavour of horseradish depends entirely on volatile essential oils, which quickly disappear in cooking. Grated horseradish does not retain its pungency for very long, but sliced horseradish can be dried in an oven at the lowest temperature setting – commercially dried horseradish has a much better flavour than the bottled horseradish sauces.
Although its main use in Britain these days is as sauce with beef and smoked fish, horseradish used to be more popular and goes well with other things, notably chicken and hard-boiled eggs.
[Horseradish – French: raifort German: Meerrettich Italian: rafano Spanish: rábano picante]
HUCKLEBERRY. See cranberry.
HUITALACOCHE is a Mexican fungus (Ustilago maydis) which grows on the ears of maize and makes the kernels swell and become deformed. The skin of the kernels turns silver-grey; the inside is black. In cooking, a black juice with a delicious fungus flavour is given out. There is no substitute for the fungus, which can be obtained only by growing it on fresh maize.
HULLED CORN. See hominy.
HUNGRY RICE. See millet.
HYACINTH BEAN. See lablab bean.
HYDROGENATION. See margarine.
HYDROGEN PEROXIDE. See disinfectants.
HYDROCHLORIC ACID (HCI). A very strong mineral acid, which is found in a very dilute form in human stomach juices. Strong fuming hydrochloric acid is highly dangerous and no kitchen product. A few drops of the dilute acid shaken up in a cane sugar syrup and allowed to stand in a warm place for several days, will convert the cane sugar to glucose and fructose. The acid can be neutralized with a pinch of chalk or bicarbonate of soda.
[Hydrochloric acid – French: acide chlorhydrique German: Chlorwasserstoff Italian: acido idroclorico Spanish: ácido hidroclórico]
HYDROLYSED PROTEIN has been broken down by acid hydrolysis and is used as a flavouring by the food industry. Hydrolysed vegetable protein (from wheat, maize or soya beans) has a rather meaty taste and is the basis of, for example, Maggi as well as being a component of various meat cubes, stock cubes and meat extracts.
HYDROLYSIS. The breaking down of complex substances into simpler ones by the addition of hydrogen and oxygen atoms in the proportion in which they occur in water – 2:1. Hydrolysis may be achieved by warmin
g with dilute acids, as when starch is hydrolysed to maltose and dextrose, cane sugar to glucose, or proteins to amino acids. It often happens as a result of the activity of enzymes (e.g. in *malt) and also with alkalis.
[Hydrolysis – French: hydrolyse German: Hydrolyse Spanish: hidrólisis]
HYDROMETER. An instrument for measuring the density of liquids. A hydrometer floats higher in a dense liquid than in a lighter one (as people can float high enough in the Dead Sea to read a newspaper), and the exact degree to which they float or sink can be read off on a scale graduated on the long neck. Because the denser the liquid the higher the gadget floats, the scale has the smaller figures at the top and the larger ones near the bottom. For accuracy, the hydrometer should be clean and dry, and readings should be taken with the eye held as near as possible on a level with the surface of the liquid. The point where the surface cuts the scale is the reading to take. The liquid must be at the temperature for which the hydrometer is graduated, because liquids expand and become less dense when warmed.
The principle on which the hydrometer is based was discovered (it is said) by Archimedes in his bath. Cooks are in the same business when they make a brine ‘to float an egg’, which would be fine apart from the fact that the density of eggs varies with their freshness. There are hydrometers manufactured with specialist scales designed for many purposes – brinometers reading brine strengths, saccharometers measuring the strength of sugar solutions, alcoholometers indicating alcohol strength in beers and wines – just as there are for determining the state of car batteries. They may be graduated in various units, from Baumé, Brix or Balling to straight SG (specific gravity).There are also simplified versions for home use, such as those graduated to predict the strength of alcohol to be hoped for from fermenting out a particular sugar solution.
Specific gravity, also called relative density, is the density of a substance measured in terms of that of water. Liquids denser than water (such as sugar syrups or brines) have an SG greater than 1, while liquids lighter than water (such as alcohol) have an SG less than 1. Practice is sometimes confusing because hydrometers are mostly graduated to omit the 1 and the decimal point. Thus an SG of 1.050 becomes SG 50 (and one of 1.150 becomes 150) on the graduated scale.
The Baumé scale (°B or °Bé). Antoine Baumé (1728-1804) was professor of chemistry in the Collège de Pharmacie in Paris from around 1752 onwards, a time when people were trying to devise scales to put science on a footing of comparison by exact measurement. What was done then is clumsy by modern standards, but somehow the Baumé scale – which ought to be obsolete – has stayed with us in a number of industrial uses (from molasses to sulphuric acid) in spite of better scales having been devised subsequently. 0° on the scale, which is for liquids denser than water, was the point to which Baumé’s hydrometer sank in distilled water (at 12.5°C). At the other end of the scale, 15° was the mark the hydrometer floated to in 15% salt brine. The trouble is that the early work was not very accurate, and Baumé kept on revising his scales, making other scales based on other substances. Hence confusion. Baumé scales are not greatly loved by Bureaux of Standards, but the Belgian butcher up at the corner near my home in Mallorca still uses a Baumé brinometer. For practical purposes, you can take the Baumé scale as indicating a straight percentage by weight of salt in a brine. Very nice, but it does not work out quite so conveniently when applied to sugar syrups.
Brix or Balling. In the first half of the 19th century, Balling produced a scale for graduating hydrometers on the basis of a percentage by weight of sugar (sucrose) dissolved in distilled water. In 1854, this scale was revised by Brix but it remains basically the same. Brix hydrometers are calibrated in °Brix, which are a straight percentage of sugar (by weight) usually at 20°C (68°F) although it was originally calculated at 17.5°C (63.5°F). Brix degrees are often quoted in recipes for bottling in syrup.
Alcohol potential. Various types of hydrometer are sold by shops that cater for the home brewer and winemaker. They may be designed specially for the amateur covering a range of specific gravities from 0.990 to 1.170 and marked also in potential alcoholic strengths; more accurate ones will cover only a part of the scale. The hydrometers are used not only to measure the original gravity of the liquid before fermentation, enabling the correct amount of sugar to be added to produce the required alcohol strength, but also to check how fermentation is progressing, to decide when it is finished or if it is stuck, and to calculate the alcohol content of the finished beer or wine, from the drop in specific gravity that has taken place. A rough method of calculating the final alcohol percentage by volume from the gravity drop is given by W. H.T. Tayleur in his Penguin Book of Home Brewing & Wine-Making, which should be read by anyone seriously interested in this subject.
[Hydrometer – French: hydromètre German: Hydrometer Italian: idrometro Spanish: hidrómetro]
HYGIENE is a system of principles evolved to maintain good health and is not synonymous with cleanliness. Indeed, on a strict definition many convenience foods of impeccable sterilization but doubtful content are unhygienic, and most country kitchens full of ash and soil from fresh vegetables are quite as hygienic as the soulless palaces of stainless steel and white enamel. The latter have the advantage that if they are dirty they look it, and so are more work to maintain, but rarely does the best food come from them. Hygiene begins with government vets and inspectors who are supposed to see that food, milk and water is fresh, wholesome and free from disease when it comes to us. They are also supposed to see that what is sold as food is food, and not just an exercise in advertising, consumer research and shelf-life.
In the kitchen, few rules are necessarily observed, but the following are important. Always wash your hands before starting to cook. Surfaces used for cutting or chopping need to be kept clean especially if they are made of wood, which is porous. A good scrub with soap and a rinse in really hot water is all that is needed. Knives and surfaces used for cutting raw meat must be washed before cutting cooked meat. In general, raw and cooked foods should be kept apart. Pans, plates, bowls and cutlery must be well washed and properly rinsed. (The long-term effect of synthetic detergents on the guts has not yet been determined.) If the washing water is really hot, then no disease organisms will be passed from one person to another on glasses, cups or forks, the key points for cross-infection. Crockery and cutlery are better left to drain dry than to be dried with a towel. Foods should not be left lying about in the kitchen or kept for long periods forgotten at the back of the refrigerator. *Copper pans should be properly tinned, or at least used and emptied immediately, and any earthenware covered with lead glaze should be kept for foods that are not acid. *Flies are public enemy number one; they are filthy and should not come in contact with food – all food should be kept covered if it is not in the refrigerator.
Finally it is worth looking at the question of washing fruits and salads. In the developed countries the main reason for this is to remove insecticidal or fungicidal sprays, and preservatives, the bad effects, if any, of which are long term and sometimes cumulative. In developing countries, where sewage disposal is dicey, the skins of fruit and tomatoes to be eaten raw should be washed carefully with water containing unscented soap as a *disinfectant. Alternatively, you can dip the fruit in boiling water, count to 15, take it out and skin it. Citrus fruits are effectively protected by their skins but in some areas might need scrubbing if you are going to use the peel and not just the contents. Green salads in such areas can never be certainly safe if they have been bought in the market and are best replaced by home sprouted seed – mustard and cress or sprouted fenugreek. Anything cooked or pasteurized is safe if it is not recontaminated.
[Hygiene – French: hygiène German: Hygiene Italian: igiene Spanish: higiene]
HYSSOP (Hyssopus officinalis). A beautiful, decorative labiate herb of the thyme family which grows wild in Mediterranean Europe from the Alps across to Russia (but not in Greece or Turkey). Hyssop has long been used for its warm, aromatic sm
ell, but it has no firm place in cooking, although it is sometimes used as a flavouring. More commonly, it is an ingredient of liqueurs (e.g. chartreuse), because it is soothing to the stomach; the taste is slightly minty but bitter. It is recommended for the herb garden.
[Hyssop – French: hysope German: Ysop, Eisop Italian: issopo Spanish: hisopo]
i
ICE. The freezing point of water and the melting point of ice are at the same temperature, 0°C or 32°F.This does not mean that if you cool water to 0°C it will suddenly solidify or that if you raise the temperature of ice to 0°C it will suddenly melt. To freeze water at zero, it is necessary to go on taking out heat, or to melt ice at zero it is necessary to go on supplying heat. In fact, it is necessary to put in or take out heat in order to cause a change of state just as it is to change water to steam), and during this period the temperature remains the same. Thirsty Himalayan climbers must sit for hours melting snow, and all the snow has to melt before the water can be heated to make a hot drink. A drink with ice floating in it (once it has settled down) will be at roughly 0°C, with both the ice and the water at the same temperature in it. The temperature of ice can, of course, be reduced below zero. It becomes crisp and the cubes do not stick together, but they do stick to the fingers.
Before the invention of refrigerators, winter snow was stored in pits or ice-houses insulated with straw for use later in the year. There is even a huge ice-house in the middle of the great Persian salt desert, a building the size (and rather the shape) of a tennis stadium, where snow was once packed to help people survive the summer’s awful heat. When water freezes to ice, it expands – which is why bottles of beer will crack in the deep freeze, and why, being less dense than water, ice floats. It will melt under pressure, as anyone who has left a bottle standing on a block of ice will have noticed – the bottle sinks in. Ice also melts when salt is put on it, but the heat consumption in the change of state from solid to liquid makes the temperature drop. This is the basis for the use of ice and salt in old-fashioned methods of freezing ice-cream.