FoodNetArchive

Cassell's dictionary of cookery

1892

Page 2226

Presented as published in 1892. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
" It forms a flocculent mass or web, which is tough and crust-like, or leathery. It is found on decaying bodies, and in fluids undergoing the acetous fermentation, which it greatly promotes, and which, indeed, it very readily occasions — a small piece placed in sugar and water soon changing it into vinegar. Vinegar, Malt. — In Great Britain vinegar is usually made from malt. By mashing with hot water, one hundred gallons of wort are ex- tracted in less than two hours from one boU of malt. "When the liquor has fallen to the tem- perature of 75* Fahr., four gallons of the barm of beer are added. After thirty-six hours it is racked off into casks, placed upright, having a false cover, pierced with holes, fixed at about a foot from their bottom. On this a considerable quantity of rape, or the refuse from the makers VIM- ( 1094 ) VIN of British wine, or otherwise a quantity of low- priced raisins, is laid, the liquor is turned into another barrel every twenty-four hours, in which time it has begun to grow waxm. Sometimes the liquor is fully fermented without the rape, which is added towards the end to communicate jlavour. Vinegar, Preserving of. — The methods of preserving vinegar arc various. It is a fact generally known that vinegar, of whatever kind, wiU not keep long, but in the course of a few weeks, esf)eciaUy in the w;u'm temperature of summer, grows turbid ; its surface is then covered with a thick mucilaginous substance, during which tune the acid disappears by de- grees, and at last is entirely lost ; whence the vinegar must very often be thrown away. Now, in order to avoid this spoiling of the vinegar, five methods are known. The first is to prepare the vinegar very strong and sour at first, by using more sugar or other materials. It is well known thtit such vinegar will keep for several years; but as few people prepare then- own vinegar, most persons contenting themselves ■with buying it at the shops, there are of course but few who can make use of this method. The second method is to concentrate the vine- gar by freezing ; after which a hole is made in the crust of ice which covers it, through which the part that is not congealed is let out, and afterwards put into bottles. This manipulation answers well enough ; but nearly one half being lost, because that which forms the crust of ice is nothing for the most part but water, good economists dishke it. The third method is to prevent the access of air by filling the bottles, and keeping them corked. Though vinegar is kept long bj' this method, it is not much employed, probably because it is troublesome to fill up the bottle with clear ^inegar from another bottle every time you make use of part of its contents. The fourth method is to distil the vinegar, and thus leave behind the impurities. Distilled vinegar does-not suffer the least change, though exposed to a warm air for years ; but the expense of distiUing is often thought too much. The following method of purifying and preserving vinegar is the easiest, and answers sufficiently. Put the vinegar into a well-tinned vessel, and make it boil for a minute over a strong fire, or the vinegar may be put into bottles, and then into a kettle of water upon the fire, and boiled ; this will coagulate the glutinous and mucilaginous matter which all vinegar contains, and this may be separated by straining; after which the clear liquor shou