The Physiology of Taste (8 page)
Read The Physiology of Taste Online
Authors: Anthelme Jean Brillat-Savarin
MARY FRANCES KENNEDY FISHER
(1908–92) was one of the great culinary writers of the twentieth century. Raised in California, she spent the early 1930s in France. Her works, which span many decades, include
Serve it Forth, Consider the Oyster, The Art of Eating
and
The Cooking of Provincial France
.
BILL BUFORD
is a staff writer for
The New Yorker
, where he was the fiction editor for eight years. He was the founding editor of
Granta
magazine and was also the publisher of Granta Books. He is the author of
Among the Thugs
and
Heat: An Amateur’s Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany
.
DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE AUTHOR AND HIS FRIEND
3.
The Improvement of the Senses
5.
Reasons for the Action of the Senses
10.
Influence of Smell on Taste
11.
Analysis of the Sensation of Tasting
12.
Order of the Various Impressions of Taste
19.
Various Concerns of Gastronomy
20.
Advantages of Gastronomical Knowledge
21.
Influence of Gastronomy on Business
24.
Anecdote
MEDITATION 5:
ON FOOD IN GENERAL
26.
Definitions
28.
Osmazome
30.
Difference Between Fasting and Feasting
MEDITATION 6:
ON FOOD IN GENERAL
33.
Bouilli
34.
Poultry
35.
Turkeys
37.
Financial Influence of the Turkey
39.
Game
40.
Fish
41.
Muria—Garum
43.
Truffles
44.
The Erotic Properties of Truffles
45.
Sugar
Different Ways of Making Coffee
Difficulties in Making Good Chocolate
Official Way of Making Chocolate
49.
Thirst
51.
Example
52.
Water
MEDITATION 10:
THE END OF THE WORLD
55.
Definitions
58.
Portrait of a Pretty Gourmande
59.
Effects of Gourmandism on Sociability
Influence of Gourmandism on Wedded Happiness
Note of a Patriotic Gastronomer
60.
Gourmands
63.
The Doctors
64.
Admonition
65.
The Writers
66.
The Devout
68.
Inevitable Longevity of Gourmands
MEDITATION 13:
ON GASTRONOMICAL TESTS
MEDITATION 14:
ON THE PLEASURES OF THE TABLE
71.
Origin of the Pleasures of the Table
72.
Difference between the Pleasure of Eating and the Pleasures of the Table
73.
Effects
75.
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
MEDITATION 15:
ON HUNTING-LUNCHEONS
77.
The Ladies
78.
Digestion
79.
Ingestion
80.
The Function of the Stomach
82.
Rest
84.
Sleep
85.
Definition
86.
Dreams
MEDITATION 20:
ON THE INFLUENCE OF DIET
94.
The Influence of Diet upon Repose, Sleep, and Dreams
96.
About Dreams
97.
Continuation
98.
Result
99.
Obesity
101.
Continuation
102.
Continuation
103.
Anecdote
MEDITATION 22:
ON THE TREATMENT OF OBESITY
106.
Preventative or Curative Treatment of Obesity
107.
Generalities
109.
Dangers of Acids
110.
The Antifat Belt
111.
About Quinine
112.
Definition
115.
A Fattening Diet
118.
The Beginnings of Laxness in Fasting
119.
Exhaustion
120.
Treatment
121.
A Cure Performed by the Professor
122.
Death
MEDITATION 27:
PHILOSOPHICAL HISTORY OF COOKING
123.
Philosophical History of Cooking
126.
Cooking
127.
Feasts of the Orientals—of the Greeks
128.
Roman Banqueting
129.
The Second Coming of Lucullus
130.
Lectisternium et Incubitatium
131.
Poetry
133.
Periods of Louis XIV and Louis XV
134.
Louis XVI
135.
Ameliorations from the Point of View of Art
MEDITATION 28:
ON RESTAURATEURS
137.
Restaurateurs
138.
Origin
140.
Examination of a Restaurant
141.
Inconveniences
142.
Competition
144.
Beauvilliers
145.
The Gastronomer in a Good Restaurant