EATING WITH OUR EYES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 21, 19 October 1907, Page 2

EATING WITH OUR EYES.

: SOME CURIOUS ANOMALIES. ' "Ask the , ( fruit-grower, and the marked i-'niany" says ''Say Allen Willcy in a recent ■number 'of thV'"Scientific American," "and they-will .tell iyou that the tongue doesn't count'for much Nowadays when it comes to' ■ getting things 'to .eat. In short, according to what they say- ;we tell more about food by looking at it than by tasting it. Appearance is preferred to, flavour. A Corner Fruit Stall.;, The man who wants to know how rapidly ■■ wo are apparently losing ,the sense of taste noed only visits a corner fruit-stall when busi- ; ness is brisk. ' Asl apples. form ono of tho. staples, just watch, the apple-buyers. Nine out of; every ten will, put their; money on the ■red, and will pay a: cent-more> for a glossy than .i or fa ~dull-tinted., . . The buyer probably does not know that the polish is sometimes; put' 'on'the apple by dipping it in'iho water used' for rinsing lemonade glasses and rubbing it with tho vendor's dishrag—but that's one-of the; ii'icks of the trade. ... . .v' •• ' • " How the Judges Judge. "At the country fair the judges of the fruit give out the bluo ribbon : by, what; they call, the 'score.' Now, in:the,case of'the apple, one which has a skin free from all bruises or other blemishes gets twenty points on tho score card; but its flavour—its actual eating for, fifteen—only as much as its form and size. It may have a .delicious flavour, far more palatable than the ono with tho'fairer skin, but:the other, gets, the ribbon because it is raoro pleasing-to the eye. Coloured Butter. ',!(Jo through' 'Domestic Hall,',and.you will see the .butter. ,' and ■ cheese', judged 'in tho same way. Sometimes; tho judges.cut off a bit and put it into their mouths, ; but the kind that looks nice, and is.doiio' up in an attractive, package often gets tho prize, though its flavour may not be up to some which, is a little 'off colour.' So it is that butter and cheese often get their rich'golden tint by patent colours, which are sold at the grocery in packages just like seeds or tacks. One concern in the United States, has .mado. so much money out of 'butter, colour' in the last few years that sonic of its stock-holders'havo started' a magazine—which, shows how rich they must bb. , ~, ' , ."It seems strange that-nuts sell'largely according to their appearance, but it is a fact' that . .' V peanut factories aro operated solely, to clean tho shell of this nut and make it look more attractive. . .'-'•■ Polished Rice. "Tho rice industry is one ; of the' most remarkable examples of this fascination for the ' things that look good. The outsido portion of a rice kernel is its most healthful'and nutritious part. It contains absolutely nothing which is injurious, but it has a dull . appearance. So nearly all of tho rice which , is eaten, in tho United Statos —outsido of the • Southern States—is 'milled.' Tho outside.is rubbed off by machinery to give the kernel a glistening appearance. Merely for this-rea-son millions of dollars have been expended 1 in this country for buildings and machinery ' that,do nothing else hut polish the grain. They' don't' eat tho milled rice in tho region - whero it grows, because they know the outsido is tho best of it. ._-.■■•_' "Somo kinds of coffee sell for a higher price in the grocery, because the berry has boon [ 'glazed' or polishc. :It is put up- in boxes I with glass sides to tempt prospective cus- . tomers by its good looks. 1 A New Kind of Egg. "A story went the rounds not so long ago that a new kind of hen had been bred which would lay an egg with' a handle.to it, so ! that tho cook could turn it into an omelet more easily. . . Produce men- save all their brown eggs for the Boston market;.as thoy are worth two or,three cents a dozen moro than those which have dead-white shells. On the other side of the country,-the gourmands of San Francisco want white eggs —the whiter tho better —so the dealers sometimes 'lime' them purposely to lighten the colour. In fact the West favours lighter tints than the East in about everything except chickens. The Fashion in Honey. "Chicago likes a light-coloured butter,, and buys glucose with broken bits of wax. in it, because it resembles white honey. It is the .plain truth that dark'honey, though perfectly pure,'sells at a much lower price in Chicago than tho imitation 'article.

-9 Yellow-legged .Poultry...,, "On the question of chicken'colour, however, we are a unit. Yellow-legged chickena havo the first call o'vor any other kind, although the. American tourist in Franco who' asks for chicken gets a fowl which is usually colourless. The French chef claims that tho yellow-loggers are no plumper or tenderer than the whites, and proves his l statement by showing that tho yellow does Hot coma from fat under, the skin,- as some suppose, but from colouring, matter in the skin:itself. Matter for I nvestlgation. ..,-•. "The Department of Agriculture has been making a study of the curious way in which tho eye is taking the place of.tho .tongue in our preference for.the things we eat."