![Fotografía de autor](https://pics.cdn.librarything.com//picsizes/82/5d/825dc294c46be8765494c7441514330414c5141_v5.jpg)
Morton Satin
Autor de Death in the Pot: The Impact of Food Poisoning on History
Sobre El Autor
Morton Satin is a retired executive director of the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association and adjunct professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas
Obras de Morton Satin
Etiquetado
Conocimiento común
Miembros
Reseñas
Estadísticas
- Obras
- 4
- Miembros
- 78
- Popularidad
- #229,022
- Valoración
- 2.8
- Reseñas
- 3
- ISBNs
- 13
Interestingly, about half of Satin’s references are Web sites. My initial thought was that he was just hacking something together without a lot of library research, but with the benefit of the doubt he might be trying to make the material more accessible for the interested reader without access or time to use an academic library.
The Jamaican ginger extract story is worth a little more detail. Jamaican ginger extract was allowed into the US during Prohibition as a “medicine”, even though it was 70% alcohol. The ginger extract was supposed to make the stuff undrinkable in quantity; however, a clever bootlegger quickly found that the Treasury Department was testing it by distillation. If 30% of the original liquid remained after distillation at 250 F, it was assumed the residue was ginger extract. All that was needed was some tasteless liquid that didn’t boil below 250 F, and you could mix it with alcohol, sell it as ginger extract, and clean up. After various experiments with ethylene glycol, dibutyl phthalate, and castor oil, tri-ortho-cresyl phosphate, normally a nonflammable hydraulic fluid, became the “inert” ingredient. Unfortunately, it turned out not to be inert and habitual “Jake” drinkers started to get various ailments, most commonly paralysis that became known as “Jake Leg”. A number of songs commemorating the victims came out – “The Jake Leg Blues”, the “Jake Leg Rag”, and so on. Those were the good old days; I expect it will be a while before we hear a rap about Escherichia coli O157:H7.
Worth reading, especially for dinner party anecdotes where you want more food for yourself.… (más)