Condiments are substances not necessarily possessing nutritive value, which are used to give sapidity to tasteless or unappetizing dishes. To what extent they have any specific action on the functions of the body is not clear. They tend to increase the flow of saliva, and thus in theory favor the digestion of starch.

Classification

The number of condiments, if we include appetizing substances of all kinds, is very large. In some countries, olives, a bit of dried herring, in fact, anything possessing pungency, may be served before a regular meal. Alcoholic beverages need not be considered here.

Sauces perhaps represent the largest class of condiments and the great number and variety of their ingredients give us some idea of the number of individual condiments. They are added to food while eating.

Spices (ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves), are used only in cooking. In this same category may be placed flavoring extracts.

Mustard forms a condiment in itself. It is used both in preparing food and as an accessory while eating. Horseradish belongs in the same class. The flavor of these depends on a volatile oil peculiar to each substance. Such oils have no value as foods. Pepper, salt and vinegar form the most indispensable of table condiments. Of these, salt is, strictly speaking, a food. When, however, it is used in excess of body needs, simply to modify the flavor of food, it is properly classed as a condiment.

Condiments are taken for their mild stimulating effects on the tissues with which they come in contact. They are not required by a normal appetite, but are frequently used to obscure the flavor of poorly prepared food. Just as bread can be made of so delicate a flavor that it can be eaten without butter, most other foods can be so treated as to have a sufficient sapidity. In the Northern States, tomatoes and melons are eaten with various accessories; in some parts of the South such fruits have so delicious a flavor that they are eaten plain. To add a cheap table sauce to a costly steak seems a gastronomic sin and certainly has no physiological justification.

In short, the taste for condiments is largely an artificial one, and their use should be limited. A well-trained palate tires of these high seasonings more quickly than of the mild characteristic flavors of food perfect in its natural state or so cooked as to develop its inherent taste. The moderate use. of condiments occasionally, for the sake of variety, or when the appetite is feeble, may be legitimate. They should be withheld (with the exception of salt), from the food of children, both because they destroy the appetite for milder foods, and because they are irritating to the mucous membrane of the alimentary canal. Because of their irritant properties they should also be given with caution to invalids, especially those suffering from any inflammation of the digestive tract. A person properly trained to relish foods for their natural flavors does not crave condiments, and is better off without them.