Roast Chicken Research Articles

Effect of normal and modified atmosphere packaging on shelf life of roast chicken meat

AbstractThe objective of this study was to investigate the effect of packaging method on physicochemical and microbiological properties of roast chicken meat. The samples were stored under normal atmosphere (A) and four different proportions of CO2 and N2 modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) conditions: N (N2, 100%), M2 (CO2/N2, 20%/80%), M3 (CO2/N2, 30%/70%), and M4 (CO2/N2, 40%/60%). Microbiological quality, pH, headspace gas composition, color, and lipid oxidation of roast chicken meat were measured. The time to reach the acceptable total viable counts (TVC, 4 log cfu/g) was 8, 16, 18, 21, and 22 days in A, N, M2, M3, and M4 samples, respectively. The thiobarbituric acid values under MAP packaging were lower than those in normal packaging. In addition, the growth rate of TVC, molds, and yeasts in roast chicken was slower with the increase of carbon dioxide content in MAP. The present findings demonstrate that packaging with CO2/N2, 40%/60% could extend the longer shelf life of roast chicken at 4°C.Practical applicationsThe results showed that CO2/N2 modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) could effectively extend the shelf life of roast chicken products. The effects of different gas compositions in MAP on the pH, color, and fat oxidation of roasted chicken were not significant. The results of this study have guided significance for the storage and consumption of products in the roast poultry processing industry, and provide the references for the storage of other barbecue products.

Pengaruh Persepsi Konsumen terhadap Keputusan Pembelian Bibit Ayam Murung Panggang di Desa Murung Panggang

This study aims to identify consumer perceptions of roasted broiled chicken seeds and determine the effect of consumer perceptions in making decisions to purchase roasted mulberry chicken seeds in Murung Panggang Village, South Amuntai District. Based on the sum of the Likert scale values ​​that the average score of the overall perception statement is 100.9, which is in the area agreed. Based on the results of the coefficient of determination analysis (R2) of the regression equation as a whole there are influences of independent variables including price variables, quality variables, and producer service variables on purchasing decisions that can be seen in the adjusted R Square value of 0.644. From the results of the t-test, the price factor does not significantly influence the purchasing decision with a significant value of 0.782> 0.05, so H0 is rejected, and H1 is accepted. Quality factors have no significant effect on purchasing decisions with a significant value of 0.053> 0.05 so that H0 is accepted and H1 is rejected, and factor levels of producer service have a significant effect on purchasing decisions with a significant value of 0,000 <0.05, so H0 is rejected and H1 is accepted.

Evaluation of Microbial Quality of Offered Foods in the Restaurant of Educational Center

This study was aimed to evaluate the microbial contamination of offered food ( including: cooked meat, cooked rice, cooked kebab, roast chicken and cooked fish, soup, stewed beef, mince stew, vegetable pot roast) in the central restaurant in Qazvin University of Medical sciences in 2016. In this cross-sectional study, 150 food samples were evaluated based on the American Association for Standard Health Care (APHA) and the Food and Drug Standard (FDA) standard. The highest total count (TC) and Coli form count number were in thesoup in different seasons ) 6.20 ± 0.80 and 3.35 ± 0.32 Log 10 cfu/g respectively (. The highest percentage of Total count and E.coli, S. aureus and Salmonella were observed in cooked fish (13%), soup (58%), cooked fish (46%), respectively (P <0.05). in addition, seasonal comparison Showed that the Food samples collected in spring in comparison with seasons had the highest contaminated rate, but the mold count was in the lowest amount. Total count, coliform and yeast contamination between different food samples also showed significant differences (P <0.05). Conclusion: The results of this study showed that microbial contamination of some foods offered at the restaurant in Qazvin University of Medical Sciences was above the standard limitation.

MODIFIKASIMAKANAN TRADISIONAL BALI BERBAHAN DASAR AYAM SEBAGAI DAYA TARIKWISATA DI DESA MENGWI BADUNG

The study, entitled “Modified Traditional Food made Basis Support Chicken For Tourism Industry in Mengwi” againts the background by the recent development of world tourism with tourist from the massive shift of interest in tourist to the tourism ethnic. Traveler began to look for unique tours are very concerned with the original character of the local community. One of which is owned by the culinary tourist destination. The research was conducted through descriptive interpretative study that aims to identify the presence of both interms of culinary tourism: (1) The modification of traditional foods made from chicken, (2) Traveler’s perception of the traditional foods, (3) Attempts a restaurant or dinner in developing traditional food, the most common data collection method is observation, questionnaires, interviews and documentation while the theoretical basis used is the theory of perception and marketing strategy.Modification process that served traditional food is traditional food made from chicken that has been modified as traditional betutu chicken, chicken betutu modification and crispy chicken, have some process modifications such as: (1) Seasoning, (2) Procesing, (3) Taste, (4) Presentation. Traveler have a positive perception of the traditional food made from chicken in Mengwi tourist area. Based on the results of research, an effort that is suitable for the development of culinary tourism in the village of Mengwi to see the existing constraints are combined with the advantages that exist in traditional food is offered to tourists in the village of Mengwi is as follows efforts to develop food product made from chicken both in terms of seasoning, processing, taste and presentation, and menu variations based chickens among other things: add a menu like the chicken for example by treatment with the way steam, braising, and roasted by changing some traditional recipe with modifications such as roast chicken in orange

Growth and survival of Salmonella Paratyphi A in roasted marinated chicken during refrigerated storage: Effect of temperature abuse and computer simulation for cold chain management

This research was conducted to evaluate the feasibility of using a one-step dynamic numerical analysis and optimization method to directly construct a tertiary model to describe the growth and survival of Salmonella Paratyphi A (SPA) in a marinated roasted chicken product. Multiple dynamic growth and survival curves obtained under different fluctuating temperature conditions between 4 and 35 °C were used to determine the growth kinetics of SPA. In combination with appropriate secondary models, the study examined both growth and survival of SPA simultaneously by an integrated one-step approach using a set of differential equations.The estimated minimum growth temperature (Tmin) of SPA was 8.91 °C, matching well with the growth characteristics of this microorganism. The growth at temperatures above Tmin and the survival below Tmin was accurately simulated by the predictive models. For model development, the root mean square error (RMSE) was 0.26 log CFU/g.The predictive models and kinetic parameters were validated using two dynamic growth and survival curves along with one isothermal thermal growth curve. The validation also showed that the models were accurate in predicting the growth and survival of the bacterium, with the RMSE of predictions only 0.52 log CFU/g. The errors of predictions were within normal experimental errors. The results of this work may be used to predict the change in the population of SPA in the marinated roasted chickens in the cold chain and during temperature abuse and to conduct risk assessment of this pathogen.

Extraction of Oleoresin from Dao-Kou Roasted Chicken Flavor Spice Blends Using Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

In this paper, the supercritical carbon dioxide extraction of oleoresin from Dao-kou roasted chicken flavor spice blends was optimized under particular conditions of extraction temperature, pressure, and time by response surface methodology (RSM). On the basis of single-factor experiments, the Box-Behnken design with three factors and three levels was applied to obtain the optimum process parameters for good extraction ratio. The optimum extraction conditions are as follows: extraction temperature 48 °C, pressure 39 MPa, and time 134 min. Under such conditions, the oleoresin extraction ratio reached 3.68 % experimentally. The flavor effect of that extracted by supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) on chicken sausage base was compared with that extracted by steam distillation, alcohol, and water, and the composition of essential oils were analyzed by GC-MS/MS. The results showed that 65 compounds could be extracted by SFE; it was better than that extracted by traditional methods of 63, 46, and 34 compounds; and the flavor effect was nicer than that extracted by other three methods.

EVALUACIÓN Y CARACTERIZACIÓN DE GRASAS Y ACEITES RESIDUALES DE COCINA PARA LA PRODUCCIÓN DE BIODIÉSEL: UN CASO DE ESTUDIO

The waste cooking oils and fats (WCOF) from the catering industry were systematically evaluated in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas. Results pointed out that the eight restaurant types found in the city produced 174 t of WCOF/year in the following proportion: 41 % formal restaurant, 24 % fast food, 8 % taquerias , 7 % antojitos , 6 % soup kitchens,6 % bars, 4 % gorditas and 4 % roast chicken shops. In addition, representative samples of WCOF coming from every restaurant type were characterized for biodiesel production, in terms of viscosity, oxidative stability, free fatty acid content, acid value, saponification number, moisture content and fatty acid composition. The physicochemical analysis suggests that all the WCOF produced in the city, except that coming from the fast food cooking, met the recommended free fatty acid levels and the acidity values for alkaline transesterification. Based on the population of the city an average production of 0.31 t/year of WCOF per 1000 inhabitants was estimated. Projecting this figure to the whole country of Mexico, 34.9 kt of this fuel would be obtained per year, which would avoid the emission of 92 kt/year of CO 2 and contribute to reduce pollution in the country.

Inhibition of Listeria monocytogenes on cooked cured chicken breasts by acidified coating containing allyl isothiocyanate or deodorized Oriental mustard extract

Ready-to-eat meats are considered foods at high risk to cause life-threatening Listeria monocytogenes infections. This study screened 5 L. monocytogenes strains for their ability to hydrolyze sinigrin (a glucosinolate in Oriental mustard), which formed allyl isothiocyanate (AITC) and reduced L. monocytogenes viability on inoculated vacuum-packed, cooked, cured roast chicken slices at 4 °C. Tests involved incorporation of 25–50 μl/g AITC directly or 100–250 mg/g Oriental mustard extract in 0.5% (w/v) κ-carrageenan/2% (w/v) chitosan-based coatings prepared using 1.5% malic or acetic acid. L. monocytogenes strains hydrolyzed 33.6%–48.4% pure sinigrin in MH broth by 21 d at 25 °C. Acidified κ-carrageenan/chitosan coatings containing 25–50 μl/g AITC or 100–250 mg/g mustard reduced the viability of L. monocytogenes and aerobic bacteria on cooked, cured roast chicken slices by 4.1 to >7.0 log10 CFU/g compared to uncoated chicken stored at 4 °C for 70 d. Coatings containing malic acid were significantly more antimicrobial than those with acetic acid. During storage for 70 d, acidified κ-carrageenan/chitosan coatings containing 25–50 μl/g AITC or 250 mg/g mustard extract reduced lactic acid bacteria (LAB) numbers 3.8 to 5.4 log10 CFU/g on chicken slices compared to uncoated samples. Acidified κ-carrageenan/chitosan-based coatings containing either AITC or Oriental mustard extract at the concentrations tested had the ability to control L. monocytogenes viability and delay growth of potential spoilage bacteria on refrigerated, vacuum-packed cured roast chicken.

Galeterias: Serving Up Ítalo-Gaúcho Heritage in the South of Brazil

Galeto al primo canto is an Italian-Brazilian culinary specialty of the Gaúcho Highlands region of southern Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state. This ample repast of roast chicken, polenta, pasta, and other dishes is associated with nineteenth-century Italian immigration to the Gaúcho Highlands. Galeterias, restaurants that serve the meal, are today a featured part of the region’s gastronomic tourism and have been officially recognized as the intangible cultural heritage of the city of Caxias do Sul. The history of the dish and contemporary claims to cultural heritage illustrate the shifting meanings of Italian ethnic identity within the Brazilian nation-state and highlight the discursive role that tourism and heritage institutions play in the cultural production process.

High Tech of Controlled Pumping into Whole Muscle Meat Food

This work is aimed at the improving the processing methods of producing the injected whole muscle meat products through the use of whey as a universal bio-eco-material and rapeseed protein concentrate. To eliminate the existing adverse effect of the electro-flotational separation of the whey components, an apparatus for electro-flotational processing in which the current does not flow through the whey has been worked out. The sensory analysis helped to find out that the typical aromatic substances of the whey hardly contribute to the aroma of the roast chicken leg quarter samples injected with the brine of modified composition, as modifying of the whey volatiles occurs in the electro-flotation process. The proposed formulation of the injection brine allows not only to increase the biological value of the products, but also purposefully form the functional and technological properties of poultry meat, with no hydrocolloids to use without compromising the product quality. Improving the functional and technological properties of the chicken leg quarters after pumping with modified brine is influenced by three factors. Firstly, the removal of the hydrogen index of the float whey from the isoelectric point of the basic proteins of the raw meat; secondly, the maximum capacity of the rapeseed proteins to bind moisture at pH 6-8; thirdly, the additional effect of the calcium ions in the whey composition on the structuring in the protein systems.

Production of Biodiesel from Roasted Chicken Fat and Methanol: Free Catalyst

Production of Biodiesel from Roasted Chicken Fat and Methanol: Free Catalyst

Courtly, and: Kemo Sabe, and: For Ruth Stone

Courtly, and: Kemo Sabe, and: For Ruth Stone Joseph Millar (bio) Courtly Forget the high-flown improbable phrases, the tinned fish and flowers, lipstick and wine—no matter Venice’s gimcrack cornices holding their thighs apart in the night or the red dahlias swaying on long stems walloping each other in the summer wind. It isn’t the blue rocks at low tide or the pale sea grass by the wall, lady of time and dried white flowers, lady of distant rain who wanders off looking for a book of matches along the road near the coffee shop built to look like a chateau and spattered with bird shit where gulls and ravens like the Hollywood movies have feasted for almost a century on the corpses of Lancelot and Keats. Nobody knows what it’s cost you to keep facing up to the world like this with its airport exhaust and chalk dust, both of us tired, both of us cold, trying to talk with the professors and lonely for California. [End Page 20] I bring these today to the door of your dream, as close as I can approach: saltwater to heal your sinuses, coffee with soy milk and coconut, blanket to warm your shoulders, bag of blue ice for your spine. Kemo Sabe My brother looks down at his fingers sorting the herb and mineral caps, bloodroot and barberry, burdock, zinc, prescribed by his holistic doctor. The tumor at the base of his tongue has shrunk a bit in the last months though he must still take a painkiller to swallow his chicken dinner. We’re in a quiet booth in Max’s Deli in Redwood City having just been to see The Lone Ranger, masked Texas cowboy of our childhood riding his alabaster horse across the landscapes of the Southwest, protector of the weak and scourge of all evil, with his Indian partner Tonto, once played in Hollywood by Jay Silverheels an all-star Mohawk lacrosse player and today by the white man Johnny Depp, heartthrob of women and master of disguise, with the taxidermic corpse of a raven covering his head and slashes of white paint below each eye [End Page 21] and we’re joking about the movie remembering our childhood diving like bats through the summer dusk, firing tin pistols into the air or else sneaking up on the twilit house to free all its hopeless prisoners. Sometimes we wanted to be the Lone Ranger, masked face of justice and valor, and sometimes we wanted to be Tonto with his buckskin clothes and his pinto horse who could track a man over solid rock, organic, native, and whole— my power-brother in his blue rain-jacket gambling on his Hanoi doctor who feeds his patients cobra blood running herbal ivs into their veins, and though he still looks way too thin my brother’s eyes are bright in his face and I think he embraces his unknown fate watching him hunch down over his plate working his way steadily forward through Max’s Lemon Roast Chicken Special. For Ruth Stone Sometimes you say bad things about people claiming it can’t be helped you crawl farther into the darkness just to see what it feels like but today you count the late frozen stars and Jupiter drifting into the dawn [End Page 22] because Ruth the poet has passed away who listened to the muse alone: the mailman and the trash truck driver, the women who work in Lost and Found, their faded hair wispy as cotton gauze in the discount store downtown. They are folding a dark wool sweater that smells of camphor and lighter fluid, in one pocket a train ticket from Roanoke to Syracuse. The creaky hinge on the Ladies Room door is silent now in the vacant station, only a traveling woman asleep, her suitcase tied with ribbons and twine and snowflakes dusting the platform, their stellar dendrites and crystal rosettes flickering like signals from outer space planetary and blind. [End Page 23] Joseph Millar Joseph Millar’s three collections are Overtime, a finalist for the Oregon Book Award; Fortune; and Blue Rust (all from Carnegie Mellon UP). His...

Influences of table setting and eating location on food acceptance and intake

This study aimed to determine whether there is an interaction between “small” (i.e., table setting) and “large” (i.e., eating location) scales of the eating environments in affecting food acceptance and consumption. An identical roast chicken was presented at three table-setting conditions: plastic tray (PT), home-style table (HT), and gourmet table (GT) settings both in sensory testing booths and realistic contexts (e.g., classroom for PT, home-style dining room for HT, and restaurant for GT). Participants favored the appearance of food served at a gourmet table setting located in a restaurant setting significantly more than in a sensory testing booth. The participants were more willing to eat the food served using a gourmet table setting in the restaurant setting than in the sensory testing booth, leading to a significant increase in their food consumption. In addition, participants consumed food more slowly and perceived themselves to be less hungry when they ate in realistic contexts rather than in sensory testing booths. In conclusion, our findings demonstrated that food acceptance and intake can vary according to whether the small (table setting) and large (eating location) scales of the eating environments are well-matched or not.

Redefining Shared Narrative in Lisa Fugard’s Skinner’s Drift and Zoë Wicomb’s Playing in the Light

Questions of ownership occupy a central place in recent South African fiction. On one hand, novelists seek ways to develop a new sense of ownership for those dispossessed by racism and poverty. Phaswane Mpe's Welcome to Our Hillbrow (2001), K. Sello Duiker's The Quiet Violence of Dreams (2001), Kgebetli Moele's Room 207 (2006), Kopano Matlwa's Coconut (2007), and Sifiso Mzobe's Young Blood (2010) exemplify this concern. On other hand, numerous writers struggle to own up to history of apartheid in face of denials that characterized apartheid system. Thus, while literary critics have celebrated freedom to explore a broader range of subjects than apartheid and its legacies (see, for example, Chapman; Frenkel and MacKenzie), a dominant strain in fiction of past fifteen years has nevertheless returned to violence of past in order to analyze nuances of guilt and responsibility. Yet paradoxically, such efforts to confront a history of violence often end in reinscribing a desire for control over that history. Emphasizing a commonality of experience, many of these novels deflect attention from different ways of experiencing same events and ongoing inequalities that underlie such differences. In 2000, Michiel Heyns analyzed how several confessional narratives by white writers, including Mark Behr's The Smell of Apples (1993) and Jo-Anne Richards's The Innocence of Roast Chicken (1998), exculpated their protagonists--and by extension white beneficiaries of apartheid-while seemingly acknowledging varied forms of complicity apartheid had engendered. Novels with more complex approaches to guilt and responsibility have sometimes left same blind spots. Published in first decade of new millennium, Jann Turner's Southern Cross (2002), Sarah Penny's The Beneficiaries (2002), which was well reviewed by Heyns, and Rachel Zadok's highly praised debut Gem Squash Tokoloshe (2005) explore interconnections between privilege, oppression, and culpability as a means of taking ownership for authors' own complicities. But each ultimately relegates questions of responsibility to past. These texts illustrate a pervasive desire to reclaim individual and collective feelings of belonging through shared narratives of past and its implications; yet they also reveal how that desire for belonging can entrench further divisions. Lisa Fugard's Skinner's Drift and Zoe Wicomb's Playing in Light, both published in 2006 by expatriate South African writers, explore alternatives to this quandary. This is not to suggest that Fugard and Wicomb are only South African writers to grapple with importance and risks of shared narrative as a foundation for reconciliation. Their approaches to this issue position them within a literary community that includes authors such as J. M. Coetzee and Achmat Dangor, who interrogate the idea that past trauma may be wrapped up and put to rest and acknowledge that remembered violence does not necessarily lead to reconciliation (Barnard 659-60). Like their contemporaries, Fugard and Wicomb insist on importance of excavating traces of past in order to create new narratives for future. But they consider how predicating reconciliations on shared accounts of past can oversimplify complexities of present. Taken together, novels intimate that shared narratives with power to build new relationships require ceding control over limits of one's story in a necessarily incomplete responsibility for voices of others--the stories they have to tell, experiences they have undergone, and conditions in which they live. At same time, Wicomb complicates this vision. She explores ways in which an ethics of self-dispropriation, whereby a person is dispossessed of his or her identity in order to enact hospitality toward someone else, wars with need for those who still face unequal opportunities to reappropriate their identities and surroundings. …

Acidifier Dosage Effects on Inside Ammonia Concentrations in Roaster Houses

<abstract><title><italic>Abstract. </italic></title> Ammonia (NH₃) in broiler houses can degrade bird performance. Acidifier such as, sodium bisulfate (SBS) applied to litter inside broiler houses can reduce NH₃ release and thus improve bird performance. While there are multiple studies on acidifier effects on inside NH₃ concentrations in broiler houses, there are no studies in roaster houses where big broiler birds are grown for 8 to 12 wk. The impact of different SBS application rates - High (1.46 kg/m², whole house), Medium (0.73 kg/m², whole house), Low (0.49 kg/m², whole house), and Control (0.49 kg/m², brood chamber) on inside NH₃ concentrations was evaluated over six flocks of roaster chickens (~4 kg ea.). Ammonia concentrations were measured with acid scrubbers that sampled air at two locations (mid-house, end-house) 0.15 m above the litter. Inside NH₃ concentrations were much higher in the cool-season versus warm-season flocks. Generally, higher acidifier application rates provided better NH₃ suppression. Ammonia concentrations were ≤10 ppm during brooding, as well as for the entire duration of most warm-weather flocks with the High and Medium treatments. In the Low treatment, NH₃ concentrations were ≤25 ppm during brooding but approached or exceeded 25 ppm with the Control treatment. During brooding, the High, Medium, and Low treatments resulted in significantly lower mid-house NH₃ concentrations of 3, 6, and 14 ppm, respectively, versus the Control treatment (24 ppm). For a 62-d flock, mid-house NH₃ concentrations were significantly lower in the High and Medium treatments versus the Control treatment; concentrations in the High, Medium, and Low treatments were reduced by 47%, 32%, and 20%, respectively, versus the Control treatment.

My Kitchen, Myself: Constructing the Feminine Identity in Contemporary Cookbooks

My Kitchen, Myself: Constructing the Feminine Identity in Contemporary Cookbooks

Reading the Senses: Writing about Food and Wine

Reading the Senses: Writing about Food and Wine

The Secret Adoptee's Cookbook

The Secret Adoptee's Cookbook

Relationship between shear elastic modulus and passive muscle force: An ex-vivo study

As muscle is stretched, it reacts with increasing passive resistance. This passive force component is important for normal muscle function. Unfortunately, direct measurement of passive muscle force is still beyond the current state-of-the-art. This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of using Supersonic shear wave elastography (SSWE) to indirectly measure passive muscle force. Sixteen gastronomies pars externus and 16 tibialis anterior muscles were dissected from 10 fresh roaster chickens. For each muscle specimen, the proximal bone–tendon junction was kept intact with its tibia or femur clamped in a fixture. Calibration weights (0–400g in 25g per increment) were applied to the distal tendon via a pulley system and muscle elasticity was measured simultaneously using SSWE. The measurements were repeated for 3 cycles. The elasticity-load relationship of each tested muscle for each loading cycle was analyzed by fitting a least-squares regression line to the data. Test-retest reliability was evaluated using intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Results demonstrated that the relationships between SSWE elasticity and passive muscle force were highly linear for all the tested muscles with coefficients of determination ranging between 0.971 and 0.999. ICCs were 0.996 and 0.985, respectively, for the slope and y-intercept parameters of the regression lines, indicating excellent reliability. These findings indicate that SSWE, when carefully applied, can be a highly reliable technique for muscle elasticity measurements. The linear relationship between SSWE elasticity and passive muscle force identified in the present study demonstrated that SSWE may be used as an indirect measure of passive muscle force.

Proust's Remains

OCTOBER 144, Spring 2013, pp. 3–24. © 2013 October Magazine, Ltd. and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Proust, who claims to have no memory, keeps track of everything. His letters (there are several thousand) provide a running inventory of his bodily functions—letters to his mother providing an update of his respiratory condition, letters to his doctor listing the details of his menu, little notes handed to his housekeeper every morning reporting the number of times he coughed the night before. September, 1904: “two creamed eggs, a wing of roast chicken, three croissants, a dish of fried potatoes, grapes, coffee, a bottle of beer . . . followed by a quarter of a glass of Vichy water when I go to bed nine or ten hours after my meal. . . . ” Proust counts his bites and gasps and belches with the precision of a Loyola keeping a running tally of his tears, or of a Molloy his farts. October, 1922: “I just finished coughing more than 3,000 times. . . . ” The involuntary processes of the body are registered in the archive of the voluntary memory until the very act of accounting is transformed into a kind of spiritual exercise—a running litany of complaints from which emerges at once both the possibility and the impossibility of writing: illness provides the stimulus, the impediment, and the essential content of literary production. Nowhere has the act of not writing provided such fertile opportunities for writing. Proust writes to his friends endless letters of apology for not writing, a shopping list of excuses that turn out to be all more or less the same and that therefore generate endless opportunities for new complaints, in turn requiring further apologies for being so boring, and so on. February, 1905: “The words ‘I have been so ill, I am still so ill’ have been uttered by me so often . . . that I’m very afraid they will reach your . . . ears somewhat faded and quite lacking in exculpatory and absolving power. . . . ” 1 Proust’s catalogue of his own bodily functions forms a small but significant part of the archive of the larger corpus of his writing as it pulses through a com-