by Tom Stobart
[Plover – French: pluvier German: Regenpfeifer Italian: piviere Spanish: chorlito]
PLUCK. The heart, liver and lungs of animals, often hung up and offered for sale as one unit in less sophisticated countries.
PLUCKING. Pulling out the feathers of birds. Commercial plucking of chickens is done by machines, the simplest of which is a revolving drum with rubber spikes or pieces of hose pipe sticking out, against which the birds are held. Before plucking, the birds are immersed in hot water at about 50°C (122°F) to loosen the feathers. Plucking by hand is a tiresome business and must be done with patience, as it is easy to tear the skin of the bird. The large wing feathers may have to be pulled out with pincers. After plucking, the fine under-feathers need to be singed off with a taper. In the Orient, chickens are very often skinned, a much simpler operation which also allows spices to enter and is correct for curries.
PLUM (Prunus domestica) is a hybrid between the sloe (P. spinosa) and the Cherry plum (P. cerasifera), which originated naturally in western Asia where the two species grow wild together and hybridize freely. The *sloe looks like a tiny blue-bloomed plum and the Cherry plum resembles a red or yellow cherry. The gage or greengage, which grows wild in Asia Minor, is sometimes treated as a separate species (P. italica) but is usually held to be a subspecies of P. domestica. Another plum species, the Japanese plum (P. triflora),which is actually a native of China, is the ancestor of some warm-country plums such as the Abundance and Burbank varieties. Now of lesser importance are the *bullace (P. domestica ssp. insititia, which is sometimes considered to be a separate species, and the *damson (P. damascena).There are also numerous indigenous American wild plums such as the Chickasaw (P. angustifolia), Oregon plum (P. subcordata), Texan plum (P. orthosepala) and others, including the P. americana, P. nigra and P. hortulana, which have been domesticated. The fruit of the last two is small and used for jam. The peach plum (P. maritima) of the East coast is also a jam plum. Plums have been cultivated seriously since classical times. Many of the best plums have been first found growing in woods and from there taken into cultivation. Plums show enormous variation in colour, size, taste and fruiting season. Of the plums proper, as opposed to greengages, some are red, some yellow and some purple or almost black. The flesh may be greenish, yellow, red or purple. There are clingstone and freestone varieties, cookers and dessert plums. Some varieties always remain sour even when ripe and some become exceedingly sweet. .And the number of varieties is huge – over 1,000 in Europe. In California, where 90% of American plums are produced, about 40 varieties are under commercial cultivation, although no more than a dozen are grown in great quantity. As with other fruit, the number of important commercial types is gradually becoming less.
Plums will grow in any warmish temperate climate, but do best with a hot summer and cold winter. However, some can even be grown at elevations in the tropics, especially those derived from Japanese plums. Out-of-season plums for the Northern hemisphere come from South Africa or South America, but plums are best when picked only just before they are ripe. In buying, you should naturally avoid over-ripe or damaged fruit, but slightly under ripe fruit will ripen in any warm room. Plums need to be put into the refrigerator when ripe and can be held there for a day or so.
In the US, the Santa Rosa makes up 35% of the California crop and is of Japanese descent, having been bred by Luther Burbank (who brought Japanese plums to the US a century ago) and named after the town in northern California where he lived. In Britain, the Victoria, with red-over-yellow rather translucent skin and nice, but not outstanding, taste is well known. The variety was found in a Sussex wood in about 1840.The greengage is named after Sir Thomas Gage who reintroduced the fruit from France (where it is called Reine Claude) into Britain in about 1725. English greengages are often not good to look at but have a superb flavour. French varieties, grown in a climate that suits them better, are twice the size and perhaps the most delicious of all the plums to eat for dessert.
Of the other greenish-yellow plums, one ought to notice the Pershore Egg, grown in huge amounts for jam in western England and the Mirabelle, a small yellow-green gage much grown in Alsace (England is too cold). Mirabelles are sweet and are used both for preserves and for the eau-de-vie called after it – mirabelle. The other famous plum eau-de-vie is called quetsch, after the quetsch plum which is ripe in August and is also excellent for cooking. Quetsch plums, stoned and baked flat on dough, make the well-known Quetschenkuchen. A cut made inside the halves of each plum prevents them curling up in the heat of the oven and is one of the secrets of these neat confections and of tarts containing tidy rows of halved plums.
Prunes. Although any plum can be dried, varieties specially suitable for the purpose have been developed. Of these the prune d’Agen and Fellemberg are two of the best known. Prunes used to be produced mainly in southern France where the weather makes it possible to dry fruit out of doors. Some sorts of prune (pistoles) are peeled, stoned and flattened, other are pricked or blanched, and some are dried in ovens. In the old days, French prunes were sent from Agen down the Garonne and shipped from Bordeaux, usually packed in osier baskets. Today prunes are produced on a large scale in California and elsewhere. Modern commercial prunes have sometimes been treated with lye to soften the skins; they are big, black and beautiful after being glossed by heating in steam or boiling brine and perhaps coated with glycerine or liquid paraffin. Carlsbad prunes, known also as Carlsbad plums, are large dessert prunes meant to be eaten with dried fruits at the end of a meal. If prunes are soaked, cooked and puréed, then mixed with cream, they make the most wonderful ices – a far cry from the nursery stewed prunes once favoured for inducing regular bowel movements. Prunes stoned and stuffed, or wrapped in bacon and grilled make well known savouries. They can be included in meat dishes and also figure in some stuffings for turkey and goose, and they go especially well with pork. In Germany, plums go with potato, beans, and smoked sausage (Mett-wurst) into a stew or Eintopf. The Chinese make hot sauces containing plums as well as chilli and garlic.
[Plum – French: prune German: Pflaume Italian: susina, prugna Spanish: ciruela]
POACHING comes from the same source as the French word for pocket, and was originally applied only to eggs. If they are put into almost boiling water, they soon become surrounded by a coating of coagulated white and so are in a pocket. But the word now covers cooking almost anything gently in hot, but by no means boiling, liquid. The word ‘simmer’, at least by its sound, denotes some slight movement of the liquid and a slightly higher temperature.
POl. See yam (dasheen).
POISONING. We are talking here about accidents rather than felonies. Food poisoning is usually understood to mean food contaminated by harmful organisms (or the poisons they generate) rather than poisoning from eating poisonous animals or plants or poisoning from chemical poisons which somehow have got into the food. Even poisonings from the long-term effects of additives and colourings are excluded, as are personal allergies. However, from the point of view of the sufferer (and the poisoner), the definition may be academic.
At one time food poisoning was thought to be due to ptomaines (from ptoma, the Greek for a corpse), protein breakdown substances with delightfully evocative names like putrecine and cadaverine formed in decomposing food. The ptomaine theory of food poisoning has long since been abandoned and so the word becomes meaningless, but in popular parlance ptomaine poisoning persists. It usually describes poisoning caused by Staphylococcus, the least serious of the three main categories of food poisoning, which are dealt with below in descending order of nastiness.
Botulism. A type of food poisoning (fortunately rare), from which more people die than recover the mortality is 65%. It is caused by a deadly poison (of the ‘test tube in a reservoir will kill a whole city’ category), made by a soil organism, Clostridium botulinum. This is entirely anaerobic and will not grow when any oxygen is present, so it finds ideal conditions in canned foods. Beans, spinach, sweet corn, meat, fish, milk and
cheese have all been culprits, as well as canned salmon. Occasionally the organism can find a place to grow even in the depths of hams, sausages and salted, dried or smoked fish.
The problem is that Clostridium botulinum is a sporeforming organism and, except in acid conditions, its spores are almost impossible to kill by boiling. They can stand several hours at 100°C (212°F). Only when the temperature is pushed up higher in a pressure cooker or an autoclave (as it is commercially) can we make canned or bottled vegetables, meat or fish really safe. Though the spores of the botulism organism can stand so much heat, the poison it produces can be made harmless even by boiling for as little as one minute. This means, of course, that you cannot get botulism from thoroughly cooked, hot food. Botulism poisoning has features in common with another killer, the toadstool Amanita phalloides, in that there are no immediate symptoms after eating, and no warning before the poison has been thoroughly ingested into the system. With botulism, there are rarely signs for at least hours, and often a day or more goes by before there are even stomach upsets. The real damage, however, is done to the nervous system, and early symptoms are double vision, difficulty in swallowing and speaking, giddiness and laboured breathing, finally leading to respiratory paralysis and death. As with the Amanita phalloides, the merest taste can be fatal. Cans of food – it is cans of vegetables, especially home-canned ones, that are most likely to cause trouble – may sometimes have an off smell and taste, but blown cans should always be discarded without tasting. Home bottlers and canners of anything other than acid fruits should follow instructions scrupulously. Botulism organisms will not develop in conditions of high acidity or where there are plenty of spices and salt. They also dislike saltpetre or nitrites.
Salmonella. There are some two hundred organisms in this genus of bacteria and some cause the typhoid-like illness paratyphoid (though not typhoid itself), while others bring about severe or mild gastroenteritis. They get into the system through contaminated food and water. There is no unusual smell or taste by which contaminated food can be recognized. Symptoms begin possibly the same day (within seven hours), but that is a minimum and they may not start for up to three days. They are stomach pains, diarrhoea, bad smelling liquid stools, thirst and perhaps vomiting (which you might expect from any digestive upset), but also high temperature, chills and headaches. This is an infection and can be cured with antibiotics. The bacteria in the contaminated food and drink can be destroyed by boiling.
Staphylococcus belong to a genus of organisms including those that cause boils, pimples, and suppurating cuts and abrasions. The genus also contains organisms that commonly cause food poisoning. These can stand concentrations of sugar and salt that would kill other micro-organisms (like those of typhoid, for instance).They find suitable nutrients in sausages and meat pies, milk, cheese, cream cakes and sandwiches. Unlike Salmonella poisoning (but like botulism), staphylococcal poisoning is due to the accumulation of toxins which the organisms have made (though the upsets may, to the layman at least, be rather similar) and there is neither infection nor fever. In Staphylococcus toxin poisoning, the symptoms come on almost immediately after the food has been eaten- in an hour or so – depending on susceptibility, circumstances, and how much poison was taken. Antibiotics will not fix this illness (as there is no infection), but recovery is usual after a few days on a light diet. The symptoms can be severe while they last Food containing Staphylococcus toxins cannot be detected by taste or smell. The toxins cannot be destroyed by ordinary cooking; they can stand up to 30 minutes boiling without being made harmless.
However, Staphylococcus poisoning is usually the result of carelessness. If foods which might be contaminated and might provide favourable conditions for the organisms are kept in the fridge then there are unlikely to be any problems. But if the foods are kept lying about in the kitchen (which, even in winter, will be of a sufficiently high temperature), then poisoning is always possible .And it happens quickly. On hot summer days, with temperatures around 30°C (86°F), sufficient toxin can develop in food in as little as five hours – between lunch and dinner- to cause illness.
Chemical contamination. One source of chemical contamination which is easily avoided is the action of the food on the surface of the container. This can be obviated by never leaving acid foods or drinks in lead- glazed earthenware containers, or metal ones.
Poisonous chemicals are likely to get into food only as a result of carelessness. Medicines, weed-killers, slug-death and sprays for the garden, ant and cockroach powder, and other toxic substances should be kept out of the kitchen and, where there are children about, locked up. Cleaning solutions – which may include strong bleach, ammonia, caustic soda and hydrochloric acid – should be treated with respect and rinsed away thoroughly with water after use. Substances such as saltpetre which can be poisonous if used in quantity instead of common salt, should be clearly labelled. If poisoning occurs, send immediately for a doctor, but begin first aid – don’t wait for him to arrive.
Corrosive poisons, such as acids or caustic soda which burn the mouth and lips demand special treatment. If the poison is acid, give bicarbonate of soda, magnesia or chalk mixed with water. If it is carbolic acid, give 1-2 tablespoons of Epsom salts or Glauber salts in water. If the poison is an alkali, give vinegar and water, or lemon or even orange juice diluted with water. If the caustic poison is unknown, give large quantities of water or some milk. With corrosive poisoning of any kind, never try to make the patient sick.
However, irritant poisons, which do not cause burning of the tissues, can be treated with an emetic and plenty of water to drink. Poisoning by alkaloids and narcotics (which affect the nervous system) should also be treated by making the patient sick, unless he is unconscious. Strong black coffee combats drowsiness.
Good emetics are two tablespoons salt in a glass of warm water, or one dessertspoon of mustard in a glass of warm water. Best of all, as it does not irritate, let the patient drink large quantities of tepid water, and then press down at the far back of his tongue (or tickle his throat) until you find the place which makes him gag. Continuing to press or tickle will make him sick. The patient should then take more water and repeat the process until his stomach is washed out.
Poisonous animals. Some fish are poisonous, occasionally just in certain seasons, and it is better to follow local advice unless you are absolutely certain the locals are wrong. Also remember that it is possible for a fish to be edible in one place and harmful in another because of its food. Sometimes fish are claimed to be good when small but harmful when large. Some barracudas come into this class. In fact, in Malaysia they say that barracudas become poisonous at certain times of the year because they eat poisonous sea snakes (a rather unlikely explanation), and it is commonly agreed in the Caribbean that the large barracudas there (around 1 ml3 ft and over) have poisonous flesh which, when eaten, causes pain in the joints, trembling and vomiting. Perhaps the most famous poisonous fish is the pufferfish which is eaten under the name of fugu in Japan, but only after preparation by experts officially licensed in the art. The blood and liver of this fish is very poisonous indeed and even eating the prepared flesh causes numb mouth and lips. Another dangerously poisonous fish is the Oil fish (Ruvettus pretiosus) which also causes numbness of the tongue, hands and feet as well as pains in the chest and stomach. Unfortunately, there are no rule-of thumb methods of telling the good from the poisonous fish; indeed some excellent fish such as the garfishes with their green bones, look as if they might be poisonous when they are not. However, the US Air Force’s survival instructions advise against eating the fish of shallow waters and reefs which are round or box-like and have hard skins and bony plates or spines, small parrot-like mouths, small gill openings, or belly fins small or absent. These are the pufferfish, file fish, globe fish, trigger fish and trunk fish of tropical seas, in particular, never eat the livers or roes of any tropical fish without knowing that they are safe. Some northern fish have livers overloaded with vitamin A which, like Polar bear
liver, can also be poisonous. Cooking does not destroy the poison of such fish. (It is worth mentioning that many fish have poisonous spines, some lethal – the stonefish has thirteen unlucky spines causing agony and death.)
In general, fresh molluscs and crustaceans whether from land (like snails) or water, are not poisonous. However, bivalves, which feed by sieving small organisms and other food particles out of the water, are easily contaminated, possibly by pathogenic bacteria (including those causing typhoid, paratyphoid and Salmonella poisoning in general, cholera and hepatitis) from untreated sewage that has been spewed into the sea or rivers. Snails may have eaten poisonous plants (which is why they are starved or fed on lettuce for several days before being cooked). Once they are dead, molluscs and crustaceans provide excellent conditions in which bacteria can multiply, especially as we are in most cases dealing with the whole organism, including the gut. Shell fish should therefore always be fresh, and damaged or dead specimens thrown away; it is best to buy live crabs and scallops in preference to one the fishmonger may have had on ice for several days. In certain areas of the eastern Pacific, for instance around the coasts of California, there are occasional plagues of a highly lethal form of plankton, the dinoflagellate Goniaulax catenella, which causes red tides. In huge numbers, this tiny animal, with its red dot, makes the sea look red. lt secretes a virulent poison that attacks the central nervous system and causes death to anyone eating contaminated shellfish. Anyone gathering shell fish on tropical rocks or reefs should handle cone shells with great care, as some of them can shoot out a poisonous, even lethal, dart from the narrow end.