[Sca-cooks] dissolved pearls

[Terry Decker]

A footnote in the Patrick Healy translation of Pliny provides the following:

"No form of acetic acid" (according to Pliny, the pearl was dropped into a
cup of vinegar) "can actually dissolve pearls.  Cleopatra no doubt swallowed
the pearl (undissolved) and subsequently recovered it in the natural course
of events."

The essential point is not that you can or can't dissolve the pearl in a
drinkable acid, but that a drinkable acid which would dissolve the pearl was
unavailable at Cleopatra's table.  The event must be considered in its
context.

Bear


I am not that convinced that the acid needed to dissolve pearls would have
to be so strong that we couldn't drink it.  Look at something like Coca
Cola, which can be used to clean copper coins, and is pretty darn effective
at dissolving things like calcium build up in sinks and electric jugs.

Kiriel