The Institutes of Akbar 60: AIN 29. · ON FLAVOURS.

60

As I have mentioned various kinds of food, I shall also say something of flavours. Heat renders pungent that which is agreeable, bitter that which is greasy, and brackish that which has the proper flavour; cold makes the first acid, the second astringent, and the third tart. Astringency when affecting the tongue merely is called in Arabic qabz; and 'ufúzat, when affecting the whole frame. A moderate temperature renders the first quality greasy, the second sweet, and the last tasteless. These are the fundamental flavours. Others count four, viz., the sweet, the bitter, the acid, the brackish. The flavours produced by combinations is endless; some have however names, e. g. bashá’at is a bitter and tart flavour, and zu’úqah a combination of the brackish and the bitter.