The Unlikely Medical History of Chocolate Syrup | Hacker News Reader

The Unlikely Medical History of Chocolate Syrup

smithsonianmag.com

31 pointsohjeez23 comments

Open articleView on HN

"Pharmacists once used chocolate syrup to mask the bitter flavor of their remedies"

As a flavoring, not with a medicinal use all its own.

Well, theobromine is pretty great in itself.

That does work really well, I've used it on crushed pills.

I've always wondered what the original flavor of Coke tasted like with Cocaine as an ingredient.

Still is made with coca leaves, so probably similar.

Indeed. For anyone wondering: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepan_Company

Wow, that's genuinely shocking. Had someone told me that at a party I wouldn't have believed them.

It surprised me when I started working in a cardiovascular lab and seeing legit cocaine in the 'drugs of addiction' cabinet. Turns out it's an extremely good vascular constrictor and is still used in certain hospitals around the place.

Especially for sinus surgery. My mother had it used in hers! Odd, isnt it, but we use morphine for pain relief so I guess it's not that crazy.

I know that cocaine can be used as a numbing agent. Do you know whether the original Coca Cola was able to make your tongue go numb?

Chocolate milk was also originally sold as a way to sell milk that was an inferior grade.

I wonder what % of all products started this way.

Also related, milk producers that are being milked (sic) by distribution giants are now pivoting to icecream because 1) they can sell at much much higher profit 2) traditionally made ice cream was forgotten and people realize how better the flavour is

"Frozen Dessert" is awful tasting. Bring on the four ingredient ice cream!

What is this traditional method that is superior? There seem to already be plenty of excellent commercial brands as well as purveyors using various liquid gases for rapid freezing with minimal crystal growth.

The ingredients are usually something like egg yolks, heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla (or other flavorings). It's put into a freezing container, where the edges are constantly scraped by paddles.

There may be excellent commercial brands, but most of what's out there is crap.

> where the edges are constantly scraped by paddles.

I bought an ice cream machine that does exactly this, but to be honest the ice cream I can make at home tastes roughly the same as the ice cream I can buy in the store (not frozen dessert!).

But as a bonus I get to pick the flavor myself. Yay for coffee flavored ice cream.

Yeah I've done that. Ben and Jerry's does it better. I don't think there's any Great Ice Cream Awakening - I see more and more premium brands on the shelf. They all exceed my criteria for being excellent. People who are happy with crap will still buy crap.

I believe Velveeta cheese started as a way of using up small shreds and pieces of cheese that could not be sold as blocks.

(I think today they purpose-make it, and small blocks are just sold as shredded cheese.)

Sausage was invented (who knows how long ago) as a way of using up the parts of the animal that were otherwise not edible.

I don't think of these things as "inferior", but rather simply as a way of avoiding waste.

Tomato ketchup.

Orange juice is made from cosmetically unattractive oranges.

Pro-Tip, buy unsalted butter and add your own salt, salt is added to butter to hide the low grade stuff :)

Actually, salt was added to butter originally in the days when there wasn't so much refrigeration. What sold in the stores now as salted and unsalted butter is identical except for the salt content. It is true that if you keep your butter in the fridge and use it mainly for baking, it is better to get unsalted. If you're going to keep it in a butter bell, you need salted.

Actually, as in additionally :P

What sold in the stores ? Not around here, I buy my butter from a farm!

You don't need to store butter in a bell, salted or otherwise... you want a butter crock for that, as the sunlight affects the shelf life too :) http://www.webexhibits.org/butter/off.html

Reply on news.ycombinator.com