Salt and other condiments / by J. J. Manley.

  • Manley, John Jackson.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Salt and other condiments / by J. J. Manley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    be decomposed with sulphuric acid, thus furnishing a more or less pure acetic acid. By submitting wine or malt vinegar to distillation, the acetic acid and all the volatile constituents are obtained in the distillate, which is known as distilled vinegar. It should be remembered, however, that the vinegar thus obtained is always weaker than that from which it is derived, and this because the boiling-point of vinegar is higher than that of water. The distilled vinegar of wine often contains a small quantity of alcohol. The various flavoured, or spiced vinegars used as con- diments, but mainly employed in cookery, are sufficiently indicated by their titles, such as Tarragon, Chili, Capsicum, Horse-radish, Garlic, &c. &c.; while the flavoured vinegars known as Raspbeiry, Cowslip &c., &c., are merely bever- ages ; but it may be noted that the sugar added to them is in a great measure converted into vinegar, while the fruits contribute in some cases a proportion of it, but chiefly their peculiar flavour. Nearly all vinegar manufacturers supply at least four different strengths or qualities of common vinegar, but as the numbers attached to their productions do not indicate absolute but relative strengths, the vinegars of different makers having the same number vary considerably in the amount of acetic acid contained in them. Good vinegar should contain 5 per cent, of anhydrous or pure acetic acid. The principal adulterations of vinegar are, according to Dr. Hassail, with water, sulphuric acid, burnt sugar, and sometimes with acrid substances, as chilies and grains of paradise, and also with acetic and pyroligneous acids. The water is added to increase its bulk, sulphuric acid and acrid substances to make it pungent, and burnt sugar to restore the colour lost by dilution. Some of the vinegars sold at small huckster’s shops, and at oyster stalls, consist of little else than diluted sulphuric acid, and water coloured with burnt sugar. Now, the law allows the addition of one part o sulphuric acid to 1000 of vinegar, and it is only when the quantity exceeds that amount that it can be considered