FOOD HISTORY: Gin (Part 3) The Part Played by the British Navy"

 FOOD HISTORY: Gin   (Part 3) The Part Played by the British Navy".

Extensive voyages by British navy ships to far distant ports around the world lead to outbreaks of the  disease scurvy; a nutritional  deficiency disease common to sailors on long voyages having to eat diets lacking in an  essential nutritional component; later discovered  to be vitamin C. At that time, however, even though the "cause" of scurvy was unknown, it had been found that sailors given citrus juice aboard ships did not come down with the disease. Therefore, in 1795, the  British Navy issued  an order  to provide a lemon  juice ration to every Navy sailor as a preventive measure to prevent this disease. Lemon juice was replaced by lime juice in 1840, thus, British sailors, after that, were called, "Limeys". (The Merchant Shipping Act of 1867 made this requirement mandatory for sailors on British merchant ships, as well.) Further, from time immemorial, British Navy sailors were given an alcoholic drink ration to prevent drunkenness' from sailors bringing their own, unrestricted alcohol supplies aboard ship. Beer was the drink of choice; one gallon per man per day. When sea voyages became so much longer, ships could not carry the amount of beer needed before it became spoiled. Therefore, substitutions of one pint of wine or one half pint of spirits were introduced. For the sailors the spirit was rum; for the officers it was Gin, which, at that time, was believed to be the cure for various illnesses. "Navy" gin was much stronger (57% alcohol) than the original gin (41.2%)  In 1740, Admiral Edward Vernon seeing that the drinking of sailors rum ration led to a variety of problems among the crew, ordered (Order #349) that the rum ration be diluted one half with water and that sailors could purchase limes and sugar to make the drink more palatable. The sailors did this and named their "new" drink," Grog" the shortened  nickname (Old Grog)  given to Admiral Vernon for wearing a cloak made of grogram cloth. In the same year, according to legend which may or may not be true, Navy Surgeon Rear Admiral Sir Thomas Desmond Gimlette proscribed that the  naval officers daily ration of lime juice be mixed with their Gin to mask its bitterness, ensuring that  his officers also had  the limes anti-scurvy benefit. Since many sailors mixed their lime juice with water diluted rum and sugar to make it more palatable, the officers probably did this with their gin, as well.They called their drink, a "Gimlet", named after Admiral Gimlette. Since all British sailors and officers used sugar sweetened lime juice in their alcoholic beverages, this may have been the precursor to," Rose's" sweetened lime juice, developed by Sir Lachlan Rose who, in 1857, developed a method of preserving a stable lime juice solution.. Ths quickly became popular with the sailors, their officers  and later, bartenders and people for home use in making 'Gimlets". When the Navy brought gin to tropical British colonies, gin found another"medicinal"  use. Colonists used it to mask the bitter taste of Quinine dissolved in  carbonated water, that   they called "tonic water", to prevent malaria. This mixture went on to become  a very popular social drink. Thus, gin and  tonic was born and, later was  transported  by British colonists to be enjoyed around the world.  Another Gin based drink, as is said, "became history."

FOOD HISTORY: Champagne;: Part 3: Vueve Cliquot

Before Madame Clicquot's innovations, Champagne held little relationship to the grand sparkling wine we know today. Barbe-Nichole Pansardin was born in Rheims, France in 1777 into a family well versed in business and politics. At age 21, in a business deal devised by two industrial leaders in Rheims, in what was primarily a business. arrangement quite common at that time, she was married to Francois Clicquot.  Francois Clicquot was the only son of Phillipe Clicquot, Barbe Nicole Pansardin's fathers’ main business competitor. While Phillipe Clicquot ‘s main interest was in trade and banking he also owned wine vines in Bouzy, France and a small wine business. Legend has it that the priest who married them gave Barbe - Nicole a book by Dom Perignon as a wedding present. After the marriage, the couple developed a real partnership. Francois was not interested in working in his father’s textile business but was interested in growing the family’s small wine business. This met with his father’s disapproval: Phillipe was content to buy still white wines from other producers and export them on an as-needed basis. This would be more profitable than making their own wines. Francois, disregarding his father’s concerns and with the support of Barbe - Nicole, together, they began to learn the wine industry from the ground up. Francois had a good head for business. In August 1801, Francois met Louis Bohne in Switzerland and hired him to be a vendor to sell his wine. Because of the large number of wine producers competing for the British Champagne market, Bohne successfully found a way to enter the Russian Court, became a friend of the Tzar and brought Clicquot Champagne into high esteem into St. Petersburg and the Russian Court. With Francois’ guidance and with the help of Bohne, sales rose from 8000 bottles in 1796 to 60,000 in 1804. Despite their passion and hard work to learn the wine industry, their business failed and in 1805, Francois contracted a fever and died.  Phillipe, devastated by his death decided he would end the wine business. Barbe - Nicole had other plans. Now, Veuve Clicquot (Widow Clicquot) would not give up. She asked her father -in -law for a loan and help in the business. Perhaps recognizing her business sense or honoring the memory and vision of Francois, he agreed. For four years, Barbe – Nicole apprenticed with Alexandre Fourneaux, a well-known wine maker but ended the relationship in 1810 with business still not profiting. Once again, she asked her father-in-law for a loan and, once more, he agreed. The year 1811 proved to be a banner year for Champagne because of an exceptional crop. When Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812, the Tzar banned the import of French Wines in bottles.  Bohne, wanting to continue sales to Russia, registered as a coffee exporter. Using Dutch merchant ships, he smuggled small quantities of bottles of wine in barrels of coffee beans to Konigsberg, Russia where the wines were eagerly greeted by the Russian elite including the Tzar. The Tzar announced that this was the only Champagne he would drink, and the ban was soon lifted. This established the Clicquot Champagne stature in Russia which, eventually, became the second largest consumer of Champagne in the world. With the Tzars endorsement, Barbe – Nichole had to scramble to keep up with increasing orders. She had to address production methods to meet this problem. However, the wine’s second fermentation in the bottle still left a cloudy wine with sediment in the bottom of the bottle. Decanting the wine into a new bottle was a slow, time-consuming process, lost product and reduced the number of bubbles in the wine. A new method had to be devised.  To solve this problem, in 1816, she developed a way to speed up production and reduce waste using a rack and a process called riddling. Riddling is a process in which the dead yeasts (lees) in the Champagne are collected and removed to produce a clear, sparkling wine. Bottles are placed in a riddling rack, a frame which holds the bottle facing downward at a 45-degree angle, allowing the lees to settle at the bottom near the cork. The bottles are turned frequently for 4 - 6 weeks until all the lees have totally settled. Then the neck of the bottle is frozen, the bottle. is turned upright, the wire cage removed, and the cork popped. The built-up pressure in the bottle expels the frozen wine plug containing the lees and leaves a clear, sediment free sparkling wine. The loss in volume is immediately replaced with a mixture of still wine and sugar, in varying amounts, to determine the final sweetness of the wine. The bottle is recorked and aged further. Riddling is still used today in Champagne making and this allowed Veuve Clicquot to expand to the worldwide market. Hers was one of the first mass market produced luxury products in the world. Further, in 1818, she invented the first known blended rose-colored Champagne by mixing still red wine, to provide fruitiness, with white Champagne. The Veuve Clicquot method of producing rose-colored Champagne is still used today by most producers of Champagne. From 987 AD, Champagne wines have been chosen to celebrate life’s most important (and not so important) events. Since 1843, ships are christened with Champagne, it was served on the Concordes maiden flight, on the linking of the French and English portions of the Channel tunnel, was drunk by the winners (Churchill) and the losers (Napoléon), of great wars, the winners of all kinds of sporting events and much more. We owe a debt, for all these traditions, to those whose hard work, inspiration and innovation combined over the years to make Champagne the celebratory we drink today and enjoyed all over the world.