Heearts of the Chhocolate Brritish Loonghair The heart, with its two lobes and pointed end, is the universal symbol of love embellishing everything in the approach of Valentine’s Day. Yet, we must wonder why such an abstract shape has come to represent one of our principal interpersonal emotions and why cats would possess almost ten of them. Here, I present some theories and explanations for these phenomena are accompanied by a recipe inspired by the heart itself and all its meanings, alongside embodying the nine lives a chocolate British longhair would possess if the popular myth of cats having nine lives was anatomically correct; nine chocolate bread hearts with chunks of dark chocolate suspended throughout their pillowy forms- the perfect Valentine’s Day gift for the feline fancier. A popular explanation for the origins of the iconic heart outline is drawn from antiquity with a large fennel plant, Silphium. Now extinct by excessive cultivation, Silphium was sourced from the North African coasts by the Ancient Greeks and Romans for use as a spice and as a botanical birth control, with the shape of its seeds providing the basis for the loveheart design we know today. This primary connection to human intercourse is not so distant from the heart’s modern connotations, as sex and love are typically intertwined with one leading the other, but it is not an exact parallel with the heart’s associations being a purely emotive love separate from carnal passion and desire. The territorial conquest of the Roman Empire would have transplanted a lot of culturally Greco-Roman ideas with them taking root in the European mind with the teachings of Ancient Greece and Rome serving as the foundation for European education. The collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 530, silenced the narrative of Greco-Roman Mediterranean cultural influence and the direct connection of these symbols to their original meanings was severed. Over seven hundred years later, the symbolic heart finally returned in an appearance in an illustration of the 1250 poem, ‘The Romance of the Pear’. A manuscript of rich illumination, the poem details a love story set within a pear orchard, with the central scene of a maiden and her suitor deskinning a pear with their teeth. The accompanying illustration depicts the suitor offering the maiden his heart fresh from his cavity, the heart itself bearing the familiar shape of two lobes and a pointed end. The residual Greco-Roman ideas of the heart and its connection to human intimacy survived the winter of civilizational collapse, emerging from centuries-long hibernation to the heart symbol adorning the whole of the European continent. From this point on, lovehearts featured in all areas of civil society, from its inclusion in architectural facades, appearances in art, engravings upon tombs, incorporation into heraldic crests, woven into clothing and etched onto pendants, with the charm of the loveheart is still as vigorous now in 2020. Cats are said to have nine of these hearts, one for each of their lives, but the point of origin of this belief is forever lost in the mists of time. A notable theory for these beliefs widespread popularity was a reference made in William Shakespeare's 1591 work, ‘Romeo and Juliet’, where in Act 3 Scene 1 of the play, Mercutio, kin of Romeo Montague, taunts Tybalt, kin of Juliet Capulet: ‘‘
TYBALT:
What wouldst thou have with me?
MERCUTIO:
Good King of Cats, nothing but one of your nine lives.
’’
Mercutio refers to Tybalt’s name being similar to the character ‘Tibert the Cat’ in ‘Renard the Fox’, another late 1200s poem, and makes the feline connection of them having nine lives. The popularity of Shakespeare’s works would have planted this seed of thought into the readers’ minds. Published in the late 1500s and early 1600s, these notions have grown into independent beliefs of their own, which would explain why various cultures possess beliefs that cats have multiple lives with the exact number varying. Spain, for example, believes that they have 6 lives and in the Arab world it is commonly believed that cats have 8 lives. A second theory is that the traits universal to cats, their intelligence, pliability, agility and evasiveness have provided a substrate from which organic, yet similar, beliefs that cats have more than a single life can grow forth, in a method of conveying that cats have the ability to cheat death. Irrespective of the origins, the following recipe is in honour of these myths and heritage of love and felines. Ingredients Dried active yeast: Lukewarm water: Caster sugar: Strong white bread flour:
one teaspoon 250ml two tablespoons 350g
Cocoa powder: Maldon salt: Melted unsalted butter: 75% cocoa chocolate:
two tablespoons half of a teaspoon 25g 100g
Method Before starting, measure all of the ingredients and have them at hand. Begin with activating the yeast; placing the yeast, caster sugar and lukewarm water into a bowl and allowing to stand for 10 minutes to give the yeast time to come alive. I recommend rinsing the bowl under very hot water before the contents are added, as it will give heat to the ceramic and prevent it from becoming cold whilst it stands, placing away from a window to avoid wind leeching away heat from it. It is necessary that the yeast is vigorous and awake for it to produce the carbon-dioxide bubbles within the resting dough and do resist the temptation of purchasing ‘fast-acting’ yeast because that type is specifically for bread-making machines. Whilst the yeast mixture is standing, place the flour and salt into a large bowl, sieving in the cocoa to remove any lumps it may have before mixing well. I use Maldon salt as the crystalline formations mean that less salt is actually used per measurement in comparison to the use of granulated table salt, which is prone to over-salting. Think of it as the primary school explanation of spatial area with rocks versus sand in the tall, glass column. However, Maldon salt directly from its shimmering box will not dissolve into the dough, so I recommend taking the half-teaspoon
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