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Enfleurage: A Pretty Name for a Disgusting Process
Above: The enfleurage process: placing blossoms on the chassis (early 20th c. photo) (2). |
Have you ever left butter uncovered in your refrigerator and noticed that it has a disgusting taste, sort of like the taste of everything in the fridge combined? No??? Is Jolique the only one stupid enough to leave the butter uncovered? Ce n'est pas possible! Jolique often has dreams about forgetting to put her clothes on before going to work—maybe they are just subconscious reminders to cover her butter dish! Well, if you were Jolique, you would actually be practicing a method of perfume-making known as enfleurage. |
| It was discovered in much
the same manner by ancient Egyptians, who, noticing that their butter
tasted like garlic when the two were placed in close proximity for
a few hours, decided to turn a lemon into lemonade. Recognizing the
odor-absorbing property of fats (what Jolique calls "the
smelly-butter principle"), the Egyptians used lards
to make perfume. Lard was the cheapest and most easily obtained fat,
but because it melts quickly, it was later mixed with tallow (beef
fat), which has a higher melting point.
Enfleurage was a fairly common method at the turn of the century for extracting the oils of jasmine and tuberose, and the Egyptians used this method for mint, lilies, pine and other plants. Inefficient and labor intensive, enfleurage is no longer used today. Those of you with strong stomachs, however, might find the process interesting. Here's how it works: First, the lard and tallow fats are cooked in a vat called a bain-marie (named after Maria Prophetissima, who invented distillation in the 3rd century). The fat is skimmed to remove any impurities such as blood or skin. (Oh, God!!) At one time, petroleum jelly was used because it never becomes rancid, but because it lacks the adsorptive power of hog and beef fat, perfumers returned to their bovine and porcine buddies. Mmmmm hog fat...yum, yum. Traditionally, the fats were prepared during the off-season so that they would be ready when the blooms were ready for harvesting. Once the fat is ready and the blooms have just (and I mean just...a few lapsed hours and the whole process is shot!) been picked and brought to the factory, a layer of fat is spread with a spatula onto both sides of a glass plate. The blooms, which must be perfectly dry, but not dried out, are then carefully placed by hand on top of the congealed fat. The ratio of bloom to fat is 3:1 for jasmine. The plates are then stacked two inches apart and inserted into a wooden frame called a chassis. Once the fat has been infused with fragrance (this is the "smelly butter principle" Jolique described earlier), the frame is turned over and the blooms are dumped off. The fat is then scraped off the glass and gently warmed until it melts. Then it's filtered through gauze and cooled. |
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The next step is exactly the same as that of the batteuse of ethyl alcohol used in the solvent extraction process. Once the oil has bonded with the alcohol, it has reached the extrait stage. Many perfumers stop there, though others will go further and distill the alcohol to obtain the absolu. The absolu d'enfleurage is a dark and semi-solid product. |
Above: Illustration of enfleurage frames (early 20th c.) (2). |
