Ambergris - weird whale vomit, right?
- Thread starter Rev-O
- Start Date
- Messages
- 8,392
- Location
- Little Feckwittering-on-the-Moor
Not necessarily just whale vomit Ollie - most of what comprises ambergris is found in the cetacean ejecta... and the raw stuff smells exactly like it until it's "aged".
- Messages
- 4,315
- Location
- Sunbury !!
sounds delightful
- Messages
- 672
I'm sure it was used in the original Creed Bois de Santal and have heard that it is in Royal Scottish Lavender and Azzaro pour Homme - the latter two might be some form of synthetic ambergris though. It is mentioned in Melvilles great story of Moby Dick:
"...Now this ambergris is a very curious substance, and so important as an article of commerce, that in 1791 a certain Nantucket-born Captain Coffin was examined at the bar of the English House of Commons on that subject. For at that time, and indeed until a comparatively late day, the precise origin of ambergris remained, like amber itself, a problem to the learned. Though the word ambergris is but the French compound for grey amber, yet the two substances are quite distinct. For amber, though at times found on the sea-coast, is also dug up in some far inland soils, whereas ambergris is never found except upon the sea. Besides, amber is a hard, transparent, brittle, odorless substance, used for mouth-pieces to pipes, for beads and ornaments; but ambergris is soft, waxy, and so highly fragrant and spicy, that it is largely used in perfumery, in pastiles, precious candles, hair-powders, and pomatum. The Turks use it in cooking, and also carry it to Mecca, for the same purpose that frankincense is carried to St. Peter's in Rome. Some wine merchants drop a few grains into claret, to flavor it.
Who would think, then, that such fine ladies and gentlemen should regale themselves with an essence found in the inglorious bowels of a sick whale! Yet so it is. By some, ambergris is supposed to be the cause, and by others the effect, of the dyspepsia in the whale. How to cure such a dyspepsia it were hard to say, unless by administering three or four boat loads of Brandreth's pills, and then running out of harm's way, as laborers do in blasting rocks..."
The story says that small round boney plates were often found in it and thought to be sailors buttons, but they proved to have come from squid and other animals. Later, the beaks of squids were found in it and it was determined to be more usually excreted than vomited - the fact that the fresh stuff smells of marine excrement supports this view. It is thought that it eases the passing of hard and sharp remnants of the whales intake, and so produced lower in the intestinal tract. However, there have been sightings of whales vomiting balls of ambergris too large to pass into the intestine, so the vomiting theory is partly true.
Nice stuff!
Regards,
Neil
"...Now this ambergris is a very curious substance, and so important as an article of commerce, that in 1791 a certain Nantucket-born Captain Coffin was examined at the bar of the English House of Commons on that subject. For at that time, and indeed until a comparatively late day, the precise origin of ambergris remained, like amber itself, a problem to the learned. Though the word ambergris is but the French compound for grey amber, yet the two substances are quite distinct. For amber, though at times found on the sea-coast, is also dug up in some far inland soils, whereas ambergris is never found except upon the sea. Besides, amber is a hard, transparent, brittle, odorless substance, used for mouth-pieces to pipes, for beads and ornaments; but ambergris is soft, waxy, and so highly fragrant and spicy, that it is largely used in perfumery, in pastiles, precious candles, hair-powders, and pomatum. The Turks use it in cooking, and also carry it to Mecca, for the same purpose that frankincense is carried to St. Peter's in Rome. Some wine merchants drop a few grains into claret, to flavor it.
Who would think, then, that such fine ladies and gentlemen should regale themselves with an essence found in the inglorious bowels of a sick whale! Yet so it is. By some, ambergris is supposed to be the cause, and by others the effect, of the dyspepsia in the whale. How to cure such a dyspepsia it were hard to say, unless by administering three or four boat loads of Brandreth's pills, and then running out of harm's way, as laborers do in blasting rocks..."
The story says that small round boney plates were often found in it and thought to be sailors buttons, but they proved to have come from squid and other animals. Later, the beaks of squids were found in it and it was determined to be more usually excreted than vomited - the fact that the fresh stuff smells of marine excrement supports this view. It is thought that it eases the passing of hard and sharp remnants of the whales intake, and so produced lower in the intestinal tract. However, there have been sightings of whales vomiting balls of ambergris too large to pass into the intestine, so the vomiting theory is partly true.
Nice stuff!
Regards,
Neil
- Messages
- 680
- Location
- The world is my Office
- Messages
- 672
Big.Dave said:
Nice link - "Moby Sick" - I like that!
Regards,
Neil
- Messages
- 276
Ambergris is mostly prized for its 'fixative' properties, prolonging scents - especially valuable in highly volatile alcohol preparations. Wines and many alcohols used to be flavoured to mask the sea water that had tainted the barrels - Lovage and Shrub being two mixers that endure to this day, especially in areas that traditionally smuggled a few barrels by floating them ashore. Ambergris would extend the aromatics effectiveness without requiring a larger amount effecting the taste too much.
Lloyd
N.B/ Honey - that glorious nectar should therefore be referred to as "bee vomit"
Lloyd
N.B/ Honey - that glorious nectar should therefore be referred to as "bee vomit"