The unlikely (and disgusting) origin of our favourite foods
意想不到又有点恶心的美食原料
What do marmite, gelatin, and molasses all have in common? They’re all foods that begin as byproducts of some other food – in this case, beer, meat, and sugar. You might not think of cattle while eating jelly or yeast while spreading Marmite on your toast, but rest assured, without one, you would not have the other.
马麦酱（Marmite）、果冻和糖浆有何共同之处？它们都是某些其他食品——啤酒、肉类和蔗糖生产过程中产生的副产品。在享用果冻或酵母，或者把马麦酱涂在面包片上时你可能不会想到牛。但是有一点你却应当明白：没有牛，这些美食可能也就不会出现。
Marmite, Vegemite, and other spreads like them are made from the dregs of the beer-brewing process. After brewer’s yeast has done its job of converting sugar into alcohol, it’s scooped up with a slurry of other ingredients, and ferried to a factory where it begins the process of being converted to something more closely resembling food (if you’re on the side which finds such concoctions edible).
马麦酱、维吉麦酱（Vegemite）及其他类似酱料实际上来自于啤酒酿造过程中的副产品——酒糟。啤酒酵母菌把糖转化为酒精之后，混杂着啤酒酵母菌与其他成分的酒糟就被运往另一家工厂，在这里被转化为成品食品（如果你来自混合酒糟可以直接食用的地区或文化）。
There, the yeast cells are burst and the proteins and other substances from their interiors are separated from the cell walls using a centrifuge. That thick soup of protein is allowed to ripen, with enzymes native to the yeast busily breaking down molecules. Amino acids, the component parts of proteins, help give a rich, savory taste, and so the more the enzymes are allowed to work, the more umami the product. Evaporating off excess water and adding flavouring ingredients are the finishing touches that bring a yeast extract to fruition.
工艺过程中，首先将啤酒酵母菌细胞解体，然后使用离心泵将细胞内部的蛋白质及其他物质与细胞壁分离。粘稠的蛋白质浆液在熟化过程中，蛋白酶会将蛋白质细胞进一步分解。作为蛋白质组成物质的氨基酸将生成浓郁的薄荷口味。参与反应的蛋白酶越多，产品口味就越鲜美。在蒸发掉多余水分并加入调味料后，就得到了美味的佐餐酱料。
马卖酱、维吉麦酱酱和其他酵母提取物都是以啤酒酒糟为原料制成。
They might not seem like the most intuitive edible in the world, but yeast extracts were the brainchild of an acclaimed 19th Century German chemist named Justus von Liebig, also a pioneer of fertilizers and many key, early insights into organic chemistry. In 1816, when von Liebig was 13 years old, a volcanic eruption in what is now Indonesia produced what become known as “The Year Without a Summer” in Europe. It seems he never forgot the crop failures and famines that resulted, and much of his professional work focused on agriculture and nutrition. He also founded Leibig’s Extract of Meat Company, which later became Oxo, the manufacturer of beef bouillon cubes.
酵母菌提取物这种半天然食品是由19世纪知名德国化学家李比希（Justus von Liebig）所发明。除此之外，李比希还发明了化肥，并且验证了有机化学领域早期众多重要发现。1816年，就在李比希13岁那年，当前印度尼西亚所在地区曾经发生火山喷发，火山灰遮天蔽日，导致欧洲出现“无夏之年”。就在这一年，他亲眼目睹了作物枯萎，饥荒蔓延的惨状，由此下定决心要在农业和营养学领域干出一番事业。除科学研究之外，他还组建了李比希肉类产品公司，这家公司后来演变成为牛肉高汤块制造商Oxo公司。
If you make beer at home and want to give your leftovers new life, the Nordic Food Lab blog has a recipe for scientific-minded cooks to make their own yeast spread.
如果你在家自酿啤酒，而又不想浪费下脚料的话，可以参考北欧食品实验室（Nordic Food Lab）博客为有科学头脑的大厨们提供的一个配方自制酵母。
Molasses, or black treacle, is the sludge left-over from the production of table sugar. The sugar cane is first crushed to release its juices, which are then boiled to evaporate the water. As the fluid thickens, sugar crystals begin to form, and to dry them out thoroughly, the mixture is spun in a centrifuge. The crystals then go to make table sugar, but the juice that’s left over – the mother liquor – can be further concentrated into a thick, sweet, slightly bitter syrup.
糖浆（Molasses），或称黑糖浆（black treacle），是蔗糖制造工艺中产生的副产品。首先将甘蔗压碎挤出汁液，煮沸后蒸发掉水分。甘蔗汁变稠后将逐渐生成糖晶体。将晶体与汁液的混合液彻底干燥后用离心泵进行分离，分离产生的晶体用于制造蔗糖，剩余的汁液——或称母液——进一步浓缩后即形成粘稠、甘甜、并略带苦味的糖浆。
Molasses can be fermented with water and yeast and distilled to make rum, and the two products were part of the infamous Triangle Trade that linked Africa, the West Indies, and the American colonies and Europe beginning in the 16th Century. Molasses from the sugar cane plantations of the Indies was sent northwards to be converted to rum, rum and other goods were sent to Africa, and they were traded to acquire the final leg: enslaved people, to be traded for more molasses. British taxes on foreign molasses entering the American colonies and the subsequent orgy of molasses smuggling formed some of the backdrop of the American Revolution.
用水和酵母对糖浆进行发酵处理然后蒸馏，即可制得朗姆酒。自16世纪起，糖浆和朗姆酒构成了非洲、西印度群岛、美洲殖民地和欧洲间声名狼藉的所谓“三角贸易”的主体。西印度群岛甘蔗种植园生产的糖浆运输到北方用于制造朗姆酒，朗姆酒和其他物资被输往非洲用于交换黑奴，黑奴则被用来交换更多的糖浆。英国对输入美洲殖民地的外国糖浆征收关税，导致后来糖浆走私盛行，成为引爆美国独立战争的导火索之一。
Gelatin is such a whimsical kind of food – bouncy, sweet, and brightly coloured when it’s turned into jelly — that it’s easy to forget that it’s actually an animal product. Boiling the leftover skins and bones of cattle, chicken, and pigs causes the connective tissue molecule collagen to fragment and disperse into the water. These strands can be filtered out and dried into a powder.
果冻是一种富有弹性、口味甘甜的胶状食品 。如果制成果酱，则拥有鲜艳的色彩，让人们很难意识到它其实是一种动物产品。将牛、鸡和猪的皮骨煮沸后，结缔组织细胞中包含胶原蛋白将分解成片段状并分散入水中。将胶原蛋白片段从水中过滤并干燥后形成粉末。
At room temperature, the strands are bonded to each other, but as you add boiling water and the temperature goes up, the bonds are disturbed and the molecules are free to form new arrangements, which they promptly do as the liquid cools, creating a 3D matrix of strands. They also attach to water molecules, surrounding themselves with skins of H2O, and the end result is a dense network of collagen threaded with water. Beware of putting certain kinds of fresh fruit into your jelly, however – pineapples and papayas, to name a couple, contain active enzymes that will snip through the chains of collagen and leave your dessert soupy.
在室温下，胶原蛋白片段开始互相接合。然后加入沸水，让温度逐渐提高。此时，接合结构将被破坏，分子重新组合，并在液体冷却的过程中形成三维蛋白链结构。蛋白链附着在水分子上，周围会环绕一层水膜，最后产物是由水分子包裹的稠密胶原蛋白网格凝胶。如果将含有活性酶的菠萝和番木瓜等新鲜水果加入凝胶，活性酶将切入胶原蛋白链，形成美味而多汁的果冻。
Preparing gelatin today is a relatively simple matter from the consumer’s perspective, and for understanding the tremendous social role this development played, especially in the United States, I cannot recommend The Social History of Jell-O Salad highly enough.
今天的消费者可以轻而易举地自制果冻。如果你想进一步了解果冻这种食品扮演的重要社会角色，尤其在美国扮演的角色，没什么比读一读《果冻沙拉的社会历史》（The Social History of Jell-O Salad）一书更合适的了。
But it was not always the case. Early recipes advised cooks to laboriously boil down their own calves’ feet, and jellies often involved the use of the dried swim bladders of fish, a product known as isinglass, or even shavings of ivory.
早期菜谱曾经建议厨师自己煮牛蹄，或者用干化鱼鳔制作果冻（后者又称鳔胶），甚至连象牙切片都能作为果冻原料。
One thing is for sure: We will eat pretty much anything.
有一点是肯定的：今天人们的食谱已经涵盖了万事万物。
来源：好英语网
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