Curio Cabinet

There was light at the end of this tunnel—they just had to dig at it. After being trapped for 17 days, 41 workers buried in a tunnel were freed in India at the end of November. But there was a lot more to their rescue than just moving some dirt around. Like many underground rescues, this ordeal was one in which every second counted. Back on November 12, construction workers were digging through a Himalayan mountain in the state of Uttarakhand when they were caught in a tunnel collapse. Rescuers immediately began trying to extract the buried workers, but they had to hurry. Even though none of the workers had been seriously injured or killed, they were already being poisoned by their own breath. Being buried under rubble meant that the men weren’t getting fresh air, and carbon dioxide from their exhaled breath was building up. Rescuers managed to reach them with a literal life line to pipe in fresh air, food and water, but the men were still growing sicker by the day.
 
The symptoms of carbon dioxide poisoning are very similar to those of carbon monoxide poisoning. They include headaches, dizziness, nausea, and confusion that get progressively worse. At very low concentrations (10,000 ppm, or one percent of the atmosphere), carbon dioxide can cause drowsiness. But even at mildly higher concentrations (30,000 ppm, or three percent), it can lead to elevated heart rates and arrhythmia. Even with oxygen present, excess carbon dioxide can still cause these symptoms, and as the concentration gets higher (around 80,000 ppm or eight percent), it can lead to suffocation. Thankfully, the workers were trapped in a fairly large section of the tunnel with enough room to walk around. To help keep the CO2 levels low, they were advised not to perform any physically strenuous activity. At the same time, they were advised to do yoga and other light exercises to help keep them calm, which probably kept CO2 levels lower by reducing their heart rates. Eventually, the workers were pulled to safety through a tunnel that rescuers made from welded pipes. Seeing sunlight after 17 days was probably a lot more calming than underground yoga!

 
[Image description: A digital illustration depicting a pickaxe and three stones.] Credit & copyright: Clker-Free-Vector-Images, Pixabay

Food just tastes better when it’s part of a celebration. Latkes, a type of potato pancake, are a staple of Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights. They’ve been enjoyed during this annual wintertime celebration, which will be observed from December 7th to December 15th this year, for centuries. However, before the 19th century, latkes looked quite different than they do today. In fact, they weren’t even made with potatoes.
 
Modern latkes (Yiddish for “pancakes”) are made with shredded potatoes, eggs, and flour. Diced onions are often added for flavor, too. The small, round fritters are then fried in oil. Frying latkes is a crucially important step not just for cooking, but because of its significance to Hanukkah. The holiday celebrates the retaking of The Temple of Jerusalem from the Greeks in the 2nd century B.C.E. According to the story, after the temple was retaken, sacred candles were lit to rededicate it. Even though there was only enough oil for the candles to burn for one day, they miraculously burned for eight days. Oil-fried latkes serve to remind celebrants of this story.
 
Surprisingly, though, latkes weren’t always made with potatoes or oil, and they were once more closely associated with a different Jewish story: The story of Judith. In this tale, a widow named Judith saved her town of Bethulia, which was being held under siege by Holofernes, a general in the Assyrian army. Judith charmed Holofernes and fed him latkes made from cheese and fried in schmaltz, or chicken fat. The latkes were so salty that Holofernes grew thirsty and drank too much wine. He passed out and Judith killed him in his sleep, thus saving her town. The latkes in this story are pretty representative of what latkes were like throughout most of their history. After all, potatoes weren’t brought to Europe until the 16th Century, and cooking oils weren’t widely available during latkes’ early days, either. So, instead of potatoes fried in oil, latkes were made with ricotta cheese in places like Italy, and with buckwheat flour in regions in and around Russia. Both kinds were popularly served at Jewish celebrations, including Hanukkah.
 
Once potatoes did make their way to Europe in the middle ages, they were planted en masse due to their hardiness. They soon became a cheap source of sustenance for commoners. Jewish people began making latkes from shredded potatoes, though it wasn’t until the mid-1800s that cooking oils became widely available too. Since cheese latkes were already a common Jewish celebration food, potato latkes quickly began popping up during the same holidays, and their connection to oil gave them additional significance during Hanukkah. Today, latkes remain a delicious, simple, yet storied food.

 
[Image description: Two latkes on a plate, with white sauce on the side.] Credit & copyright: Taken, Pixabay

This whisky’s old enough to retire! A distillery in Scotland has set a new record as one of their 60-year-old bottles of whiskey recently sold for $2.7 million at auction. Located in Craigellachie, Moray, Scotland, Macallan is no stranger to rarefied spirits. The distillery has been producing whisky for nearly two centuries, but this latest sale is unlike any before. Back in 1926, the distiller began aging a batch of whisky in sherry casks, where it stayed for 60 years. When whisky is first distilled, it comes out as a clear spirit with little flavor. To give it its characteristic woody taste, the spirit is placed in oak barrels (in this case, ones that previously aged sherry for an even more complex flavor profile). Most spirits aged this way are only barreled for a few years at most, but to be considered Scotch whisky, it must be aged for at least three years and have an alcohol content of 40 percent ABV. Over the years, the whiskey takes on a darker color from the wood and absorbs tannins and flavor compounds. Once the whisky is bottled, it’s no longer aging, so no matter how long a 20-year-old whisky sits on a shelf, it will always be considered 20-years-old.
 
Some whisky is lost to evaporation while it ages in barrels, but the longer it ages, the more it’s typically worth. When the Macallan Adami 1926 was bottled in 1986, each of the 40 bottles produced already commanded a premium, but the price only went up over the years. One sold back in 2019 for $1.9 million at auction, and this latest bottle was given a pre-auction estimate of $1.5 million. As for what the record-breaking liquor tastes like? Macallan’s master whisky maker, Kirsteen Campbell, told the Associated Press that it tastes of, “rich dark fruits, black cherry compote alongside sticky dates, followed by intense sweet antique oak.” Old, bold, and plenty pricey.

 
[Image description: A glass of scotch against a dark background.] Credit & copyright: PublicDomainPictures, Pixabay