The development of organic chemistry in the 19th century introduced many new chemical compounds and the means to determine their molecular structures.
One of the first attempts to draw systematic correlations between molecules' structures and their tastes was made by a German chemist, Georg Cohn, in 1914. He advanced the hypothesis that in order to evoke a certain taste, a molecule must contain some structural motif (called a sapophore) that produced that taste. With regard to sweetness, he noted that molecules containing multiple hydroxyl groups and those containing chlorine atoms are often sweet, and that among a series of structurally similar compounds, those with smaller molecular were often sweeter than the larger compounds.
In 1919, Oertly and Myers proposed a more elaborate theory based on a then-current theory of colour in synthetic dyes. They hypothesized that in order to be
sweet, a compound must contain one each of two classes of structural motif, a glucophore and an auxogluc. Based on those compounds known to be sweet at the time, they proposed a list of six candidate glucophores and nine auxoglucs.From these beginnings in the early 20th century, the theory of sweetness enjoyed little further academic attention until 1963, when Robert Shallenberger and Terry Acree proposed the AH-B theory of sweetness. Simply put, they proposed that in order to be sweet, a compound must contain a hydrogen bond donor (AH) and a Lewis base (B) separated by about 0.3 nanometres.
The most elaborate theory of sweetness to date is the multipoint attachment theory (MPA) proposed by Jean-Marie Tinti and Claude Nofre in 1991. This theory involves a total of eight interaction sites between a sweetener and the sweetness receptor, although not all sweeteners interact with all eight sites. This model has successfully directed efforts aimed at finding highly potent sweeteners, including the most potent family of sweeteners known to date, the guanidine sweeteners. The most potent of these, lugduname, is about 225,000 times sweeter than sucrose.
Ha haa haaaa haaaaaaa!!!!In case you are sick of reading all this just drive around 10 to 12 kms from Cuttack towards BBSR. Get down at this signboard and you will forget everything about the theory and science of sweetness.
This village (Pahalo) has been in the profession of making rasogullas for probably hundreds of years. Much to the embarassment of Bongs it is we Oriyas who have the credit of discovering this mouth watering delight.(Though I must admit they pronounce it much better than anybody else in this planet).There is still some old world charm left in this village. For example yours truly, my Bhabhi and her colleague (the HOD of Botony Dept. Ravenshaw College) actually tasted three to four rasogullas each before deciding which was the freshest lot.
Someday I still hope to see a White Christmas but until then white for me would mean the whiteness of Pahalo rasogullas.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL.
3 comments:
OMG!! That's simply irresistible!!
Isi baat pe I must take a posting in BBSR when I come back!
I have never seen so many rasogullas in a single frame! Thanx Arun! How about a photo feature on this subject for Udaya's paper?
Picked up some interesting points about the origin of rasogulla- Orissa or Bengal. There are two points which clinch the argument in favour of Orissa:
1] rasogulla is offered to lord jagannath since centuries. since his "diet" is strictly restricted to the food of Orissa therefore rasogulla has to be from Orissa. The priests of Jagannath are very very conservative- even Indira Gandhi was not allowed in the sanctum sanctora.
2] In Pahalo, where the tradition of making this sweet goes back to centuries,NO OTHER SWEET is prepared here other than rasogullas, chenna podo and chenna goja.
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