In the manufacture of chocolate a portion of the cacao seed are
deprived of their fat by removing the shells, heating the kernels to
about 70° C. (158° F.), and pressing them between hot iron plates. The
yield from different varieties of cacao is from 35 to 45 per cent.
The dietetic use of chocolate does not require any detailed notice in
this place. Prepared with water or milk, it is employed as a substitute
for coffee in southern Europe, South America, Mexico and West India,
and to a less degree in other civilized countries. It is to be
preferred to the other agents mentioned when a nutritive rather than
an excitant operation is desired; and hence it is familiarly employed
during convalescence from acute disease, and as a substitute for tea
or coffee in the diet of persons whose nervous system is liable to be
deranged by them.
* * * * *
The English name cocoa, which is used to designate the product of
the highly-prized cocoa bean (_Theobroma Cacao_), is improperly
applied to that fruit; for, according to _Webster’s_ Dictionary
(Edition of 1884), _cacao_ is the proper term to use; cocoa should
only be employed to designate the fruit or nut of the _Cocoa-nut
tree_.
_From A Manual of Practical Hygiene. By Ed. A. Parkes, M.D., F.R.S._
(_London, 1878_).
Although the theobromine of cocoa is now known to be identical with
theïn and caffeïn, the quantity of fat is large. It varies even in the
same sort of cocoa, but usually from 45 to 50 per cent.
The large quantity of fat and albuminoid substance make it a very
nourishing article of diet, and it is therefore useful in weak states
of the system (and for healthy men under circumstances of great
exertion).
By roasting, the starch is changed into dextrin, the amount of manganic
acid increases, and an empyreumatic aromatic substance is formed.
According to the celebrated French chemist, PAYEN, the alimentary
properties of chocolate are fully proved. The cacao bean contains twice
as much azotic matter (nitrogen) as the best flour, about twenty-five
times more fatty matter, a notable portion of starch and a very
agreeable aroma, whilst the theobromine which it contains produces
appetite and facilitates digestion. This analysis of ingredients proves
effectually that it is endowed with nutritive power in an eminent
degree.
CHEVALIER, member of the Academy of Medicine and of the Board
of Health of Paris, in his treatise on Chocolate, declares that cacao
and chocolate are a complete food, and adds that “coffee and tea
are not food, but cacao gives one-third of its weight in starch and
one-half of its weight in cacao butter, and, converted into chocolate
by the addition of sugar, it realizes the idea of a complete aliment,
wholesome and eminently hygienic.
“The shells of the cacao bean contain the same principles as the
kernels, and the extract, obtained by infusion of the shells in
sweetened milk, forms a mixture at once agreeable to the taste and an
advantageous substitute for tea and coffee at the breakfast, lunch,
dinner and supper table.”
In a recent work by the chemist BOUSSINGAULT (April, 1883), we
read: “Chocolate possesses an essential quality—that of comprising in
a small bulk a large portion of nutritive matter.
“In Africa, rice, gum and shea butter help the Arab to cross the
desert; in the New World, cacao and chocolate make the heights of the
Andes and the vast American forests accessible to man.”
This is at once a perfect food and a most energetic tonic. There is
in fact in cacao, legumine, albumine and vegetable meat, associated
with fat, starch and sugar, which maintain respiratory combustion;
phosphates, the material of the bony system; and lastly, a precious
substance, Theobromine.
HUFFELAND, physician to the King of Prussia, said: “I recommend _good
chocolate_ to nervous, excitable persons; also to the weak, debilitated
and infirm; to children, to women; I have obtained excellent results
from it in many cases of chronic diseases of the digestive organs.”
The celebrated HUMBOLDT, in his narrative of travels, affirms
that chocolate possesses an essential quality, viz., that of containing
in a small compass a large proportion of the elements necessary to good
and healthy feeding.
FERNANDO CORTEZ, conqueror of Mexico, probably exaggerated its
value when he said: “He who has drunk a cup of Mexican chocolate, can
march all day without further nourishment,” but it is quite certain
that for long expeditions, as also when hunting, fishing or traveling,
especially when it is desirable to reduce the bulk and the weight of
the rations, chocolate offers incontestable advantages.
BARON LIEBIG, the great chemist and physician, said of chocolate: “It
is a perfect food, as wholesome as delicious, a beneficent restorer
of exhausted power, but its quality must be _good_, and its culinary
preparation must be _careful_; chocolate is a substance extremely
nourishing and easily digested, it is fitted to repair wasted strength,
to preserve health and prolong life. This salutary food agrees with dry
temperaments and convalescents; with mothers who nurse their children,
and with those whose occupations oblige them to undergo an extensive
strain of mind; with public speakers and with all those who give to
work a portion of the time needed for sleep. It soothes both stomach
and brain, and for this reason, as well as for others, it is the best
friend of literary men.”
VOLTAIRE, in his Encyclopædia, calls chocolate “milk for the
aged.”
BROUSSAIS, a celebrated physician, said: “Chocolate of _good quality_,
well made, and properly cooked, is one of the best aliments that I have
yet found for my patients and for myself. This delicious food calms
the fever, nourishes adequately the patient and tends to restore him
to health. I would even add that I attribute many cures of chronic
dyspepsia to the regular use of chocolate.”
BRILLAT-SAVARIN, the master of gastronomy, said: “Time and experiment
have demonstrated that _good chocolate_, _well-prepared_, is an
aliment as salutary as it is agreeable; that it is nourishing, of easy
digestion and is free from the objections found against coffee; that
it is very suitable to persons mentally overworked, to journalists
and travelers; it agrees with the most feeble and the most delicate
stomachs. A few persons complain of their inability to digest
chocolate; good and well-prepared chocolate should agree with any
stomach however weak might be its digestive power.”
During the wars of the French Empire the great Napoleon and many of the
officers of his staff passed entire days on horseback without other
nourishment than a tablet of good chocolate.