The uses of adversity

New Statesman, 28 May 2007

Bourbon, a product of hardship, is today a refuge for the soul

Human ingenuity is never more manifest than in times of hardship, as is abundantly proved by food. All the most lasting culinary achievements are the products of dearth, in which people have had to impart flavour to some staple crop such as rice, millet, durum wheat or potatoes, with only a few scant ingredients to help them. Think of Marmite - an inspired response to wartime deprivation, the flavour of which percolates to the roots of human virtue. Then there is chutney, harissa, HP Sauce and ketchup; pesto, nuoc nam (fish sauce), tapenade and Parmesan - designed to rescue the dullest dish, though applied in the tiny quantities that penury affords.

This ingenuity has been manifest, too, in the world of drink. Deprived of grapes and other sources of sweetness, with only rye and barley to provide their sugars, the ingenious Celts began mashing, malting, distilling and casking, eventually hitting on the drink that Sir Walter Scott, relishing the sound of a word in which we hear the flames and fumes of the distillery, calls by its Gaelic name of uisgeah. Transported to America, the Scots and Irish hit on a further refinement, which was to store it in casks that had been burned on the inside. Charcoal absorbs unwanted gases, and also projects a dark mysterious flavour, like big black eyebrows on a clear young face. Thus was created Bourbon, product of those years of hardship when beer was too weak, wine too rare, and rum unobtainable.

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