Fish Tales, Food Frauds, and Peddlers' Ploys

 

 Silver or Coho salmon, adult male. In: "The Fishes of Alaska." Bulletin of the Bureau of Fisheries, Vol. XXVI, 1906.

I've been hearing a lot about food frauds and fakery lately. It seems we do not always get what we
pay for.

For example, farmed salmon is being passed off as wild. Wild salmon gets its red color from the plankton it eats. Farmed salmon has color added to its feed so it looks more like wild. Some unscrupulous dealers label dyed farmed salmon as wild, and charge accordingly.

Another scam involves olive oil. You may be paying high prices for cold-pressed, extra-virgin olive oil from Italy but actually getting cheap industrially produced soybean oil.

Maple syrup may be sugar syrup with flavoring added. If the price seems too good to be true, be suspicious.

Food fraud is a terrible thing, but it’s not exactly new. In the 17th century, French confectioner M. Emy warned that dealers soaked old, dried-up vanilla beans in oil to sell them as fresh ones. The old beans didn’t pass the sniff test, according to Emy.

Street vendors in mid-19th-century London were accused, often rightly so, of all sorts of bad behavior. In their own defense, the vendors claimed that it was such a difficult way to make a living that they had to cheat to survive. 

One common ploy was using containers with false or extra thick bottoms. What seemed to be a quart container held a pint and a half. A pint container held three-quarters of a pint. The price, of course, was for the full amount.

“Topping off” meant arranging lovely fresh apples or cherries or strawberries atop a basket full of overripe fruits and lots of leaves. The practice was so typical, it was taken for granted.

Some scams were quite ingenious. Eel, which was sold either already cooked or while it was still alive, was very popular in London at the time. Unscrupulous eel sellers were known for their practice of dumping as many as 20 pounds of dead eels amid five pounds of squirming live ones, and selling them all as “large live eels.” Since they got the dead eels free from wholesalers, the profit was excellent. 

Spices were subject to all sorts of fakery. It was safer to buy whole spices than ground ones, but it was no guarantee. Some dealers made false nutmegs from clay and scrapings of real nutmeg. They also mixed clay with oil and cayenne to make realistic-looking peppercorns.

They “sophisticated” or, less euphemistically, adulterated expensive ground spices with all sorts of cheap fillers. Ginger was cut with pea flour, turmeric, wheat flour, potato flour, or mustard husks.

Coffee was extended with roasted wheat, scorched peas, beans, roasted carrots, rye, roots, acorns, or even mahogany sawdust. New tea leaves were often mixed with other leaves to make them go further. Used tea leaves were dried out and resold as fresh.

The list goes on and now, as then, buyers must always beware. So, if you think something’s fishy, it very likely is.

 

Potted Salmon

Leftover salmon, wild or farmed, makes a wonderful, 18th century British dish. If you want it to be very smooth, use a blender or food processor instead of a mortar and pestle. Serve it as an appetizer with crackers or melba toast.

When you have any cold salmon left, take the skin off and bone it, then put it in a marble mortar with a good deal of clarified butter. Season it pretty high with pepper, mace and salt, shred a little fennel very small. Beat them all together exceeding fine, then put it close down into a pot and cover with clarified butter. –The Experienced English Housekeeper, Elizabeth Raffald, 1769.

Comments

[Jeri Quinzio]

All sorts of foods were "sophisticated," as they said at the time. I wrote about the practice for Gastronomica, if you're interested in more about it. Thanks for your comments.

[Term Papers]

Some dealers made false nutmegs from clay and scrapings of real nutmeg. They also mixed clay with oil and cayenne to make realistic-looking peppercorns.

[Term papers]

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