History
The history of food flavourings
Today's food flavouring industry has continually evolved due to the ever expanding knowledge of natural raw materials, gastronomy, cooking techniques and procedures adopted from the perfumery industry. Progress made by the chemical industry during the industrial revolution has also played a crucial role.The Egyptians were the first to embrace odoriferous raw materials, creating elaborate perfumes with mastic, juniper, myrrh and cypress as ingredients.
The Egyptians also seasoned and flavoured their dishes, as did the Jews who, according to the Old Testament, ate grilled paschal lamb flavoured with bitter herbs before crossing the Red Sea.
Meanwhile, fermentation also began as a food preservation method. This was in fact pivotal in the brewing of beer and started around 8000 BC in Jordan where it originally took the form of a mixture of barley bread, water and spices. Bavarian monks then introduced hops for ale manufacturing in the 13th Century before the official recipe or 'purity law on beer' appeared in 1516, also in Bavaria.
The Romans also made great strides, adding strong and elaborate sauces to their meat dishes containing such delicacies as, garum and various sweet and sour sauces.
New found skills contributed to the evolution of our culinary practices. For example, the crusaders from the Near East introduced extraction techniques such as distillation for aromatic and odoriferous substances.
Soon after, exotic ingredients such as spices and aromatic herbs came to the fore, enriching the variety of raw materials at our disposal. The aromatic ingredients stemmed from the Asian continent and were shipped by boats circumnavigating the African continent, following the sea road discovered by Vasco de Gama in 1497.
During the 16th century, alcohol (ethyl alcohol) was increasingly used to manufacture aromatic extracts of spices and herbs. This period also saw the appearance of essential oils such as those derived from citrus fruits.
Then, in the 19th century, industrialisation and urbanisation changed the living conditions, nutritional habits and food requirements of the world's population. These revolutionary advancements led to far-reaching changes in the field of food production. Food craft grew and manufacturing at an industrial level gained momentum. Tins for preserving fruit and vegetables were developed and the term “convenience food” made its humble beginnings.
Our diets also became more diverse. Tasty and sophisticated foods were no longer the privilege of the rich. Everyone, rich and poor alike, had access to tasty, industrially produced foods. A new industry - the flavouring industry - was born.
First discoveries and techniques
- Mankind controls fire : first cooked and smoked meats.
- Gathering and use of spices and aromatic plants (eg: black pepper in India) for seasoning of foods.
- First distillation processes for production of alcohol; Primitive alembic in Mesopotamia.
- Uses of extracts and aromatic oils as fragrances in Egypt (lentisc, juniper, myrrh, cypress, etc.)
- Development of boiling, cooking and other preservation processes (fermentation): slow cooking dishes, bread, beer, wine, yogurts, garum (nuoc-mam), etc.
- Middle Age and Renaissance: Global improvement of culinary techniques and gastronomy: stocks, meat juices, hop flavoured beer, etc.
Distillation
- Is one of the oldest processes used to obtain concentrated flavouring materials.
- It consists in a heat treatment of a mixture aiming to separate its compounds.
- Different compounds have different boiling points.
- Heat and temperature are therefore the main parameters to control
Discoveries and Development of knowledges
-
Isolation of flavouring substances:
- 1834: Cinnamaldehyde
- 1837: Benzaldehyde -
First chemical syntheses of flavouring substances
- 1845: Benzaldehyde
- 1870: Vanillin
- 1874: Coumarin
- 1893: Beta - Ionone
Technical & culinary applications
- Industrial development of perfumery
- Pastilles “Violette” of hard boiled candy with a synthetic Violet flavouring
Discoveries and Development of knowledges
-
Isolation of flavouring substances:
- 1834: Cinnamaldehyde
- 1837: Benzaldehyde -
First chemical syntheses of flavouring substances
- 1845: Benzaldehyde
- 1870: Vanillin
- 1874: Coumarin
- 1893: Beta - Ionone
Technical & culinary applications
- Industrial development of perfumery
- Pastilles “Violette” of hard boiled candy with a synthetic Violet flavouring