_Pickles, Vinegar, Oil, Mustard, Anchovies, Catsup, Isinglass, Soap,
Candles, Blue or Indigo, Starch, Bees Wax, &c._
PICKLES.
Among the poisonous articles daily vended to the public, none are of
more potent effect than the pickles sold by unprincipled oilmen. For
the purpose of giving a fresh and lively green colour or hue to those
stimulants of the palate, they are intentionally coloured by means of
copper or verdigris, or at least placed for a considerable time in
copper or brazen vessels for the purpose of allowing the articles to
be impregnated by the joint action of the metal and the vinegar. The
cookery books (save and except “_The Cook’s Oracle_”) in vogue also
direct the “lovers of good cheer” to boil their pickles in _bell metal
or copper pots_, or to boil _halfpence_ or _a bit of verdigris_ with
them, in order to impart a green colour! Ought not the authors, whose
gender seems “_doubtful_,” and Messieurs les Bibliopoles, of those
pests, to be indited for a nuisance and malice prepense to the _loving_
subjects of our late “_good old king_?”
The ready way to detect the presence of copper in these articles is
to pour a little liquid ammonia, diluted with an equal quantity of
water, over a small quantity of the suspected pickle reduced into small
pieces, and placed in an enclosed phial or vessel; when, if the pickles
contain the minutest quantity of copper, the ammonia will assume a blue
colour.
VINEGAR.
Vinegar is adulterated with sulphuric acid, muriatic acid, nitric acid,
oil of vitriol, a variety of acrid vegetable substances, and frequently
contains metallic impregnations of lead, tin, pewter, iron, and copper,
from the stills or vessels in which it is made. Its more harmless
adulteration is a considerable dilution with water.
Vinegar is prepared from a variety of substances; but its common
preparations are from wine, fruits, malt, sugar, and wood. The vinegar
made from wood is the strongest, containing at least eight times the
strength of the common preparations. It is perfectly colourless, and
its taste is very pungent and grateful. But the vinegar generally
prepared for sale in this country is made from malt; which to be good
should be of a pale brown colour, perfectly transparent, of a pleasant
and rather pungent acid taste, but without acrimony, and a fragrant
grateful odour. These are the readiest and best tests of good vinegar.
But as a false strength is frequently given to it by adding oil of
vitriol, sulphuric acid, or the extract of some acrid vegetable, as
pellitory of Spain, capsicum, &c. or metallic extracts, the tests for
ascertaining these foreign substances are as follow: If it is suspected
that vinegar is adulterated with oil of vitriol, put three or four
drops of acetate of barytes into a glass of vinegar; filtrate the
white precipitate thereby produced through paper, and heat the powder
or residuum remaining in a tobacco-pipe until it is red hot. Then put
it into spirit of salt or diluted aqua-fortis; if the precipitate
dissolves, the vinegar is genuine; if not, it is adulterated. But if
metallic adulteration is suspected, add liquid ammonia to the vinegar,
until the odour of the ammonia predominates; if the mixture assumes
a blackish tint, it is a sign that copper is present in the article.
If the presence of lead be suspected, add water impregnated with
sulphuretted hydrogen to the suspected vinegar; if the mixture becomes
black or yields a black precipitate, your suspicion is well founded.
OLIVE, OR FLORENCE OIL.
Olive oil is frequently adulterated by mixing with it the oil of poppy
seeds or a decoction of cucumbers, which latter ingredients easily
unite with the oleaginous substances. It is frequently impregnated
with lead, from the circumstance of the fruit which yields the oil
being compressed between leaden plates, and the oil being suffered to
remain in pewter or leaden cisterns in order to become clear before
it is offered for sale. This last injurious quality is communicated
afresh to the commodity by the retail venders, who frequently keep a
pewter vessel immersed in the oil, for the purpose, as they assert, of
preserving the liquid from becoming rancid. It is however proper to
state that the metallic contamination by the wholesale manufacturer
chiefly belongs to the Spanish produce: the French and Italian
manufacture is usually free from the impregnation.
The presence of lead or any metal deleterious to health is detected, by
shaking in a stopped phial some of the suspected oil with a quantity of
water impregnated with sulphuretted hydrogen, in the proportion of one
part of the former to two parts of the latter ingredient; when the oil,
if adulterated, will become of a dark brown or black colour. When the
oil of poppy seed, or the decoction of cucumber, is supposed to have
been made use of in the adulteration, their presence may be ascertained
by exposing the mixture to a freezing temperature, when the olive oil
will become frozen, while the adulterating ingredient will remain
fluid.
The best olive oil is of a bright pale amber colour, somewhat inclining
to a greenish cast; free from sediment, bland to the taste, and without
smell.
SALT.
Salt is frequently adulterated with sulphate of lime, for the purpose
of making it weigh heavier, appear lighter, and less liable to become
moist.
MUSTARD.
“Genuine mustard,” says Mr. Accum, (Culinary Poisons, p. 330) “either
in powder, or in a state of paste ready made, is perhaps rarely to be
met with in the shops.” Whether “_patent_,” “_best Durham_,” or of any
other pretty and imposing name, it generally consists of a composition
of mustard flour and wheaten flour; only for the additional cost of
the “patent mustard” of the respective manufacturers, the purchaser is
treated with a little cayenne pepper, a large quantity of bay salt, and
a quantum sufficit of “aqua pura.” Turmeric is the grand adulterant
of the merchant for giving the yellow colour to factitious mustard.
The _flour_ of mustard of the shops generally consists of the produce
of mustard seed, cayenne pepper, wheat flour, and turmeric; and the
_essence_ of mustard of the fashionable oilmen is composed of camphor
and oil of rosemary, dissolved in oil of turpentine, with the addition
of a little of the _flour_ of mustard!
ANCHOVY SAUCE.
Anchovy sauce is frequently contaminated with the pigments denominated
Venetian red or Armenian bole, which are rubbed into the mass, while
the operator is triturating the anchovy in his mortar. The Venetian
red, which is frequently adulterated with red lead, affords the deepest
and finest colour, and is accordingly used by the _fashionable_ oilman;
the aid of the Armenian bole is invoked by his more conscientious and
less aspiring brethren.
But the anchovy itself is not exempt from the sophisticating ingenuity
of the trade; for sprats are frequently prepared and sold for
anchovies. The best way of discovering the fraud is by the appearance
of the back bone, which in the anchovy is triangular for some space
from the head, while that of the sprat is flat.
The test for detecting the fraud practised in the manufacture of
anchovy sauce is the same as that which will be presently stated for
discovering the adulteration of mushroom catsup.
MUSHROOM CATSUP.
This common article of consumption is frequently contaminated by
copper. This deleterious quality it obtains from the mode of its
manufacture, as well as from the articles from which it is manufactured.
The usual way in which it is prepared is by boiling in a copper the
residue left in the still of the vinegar manufacturer, with a decoction
of the outer green shell of the walnut (previously prepared also by
having been boiled in a copper, in combination with common salt;)
together with a portion of allspice or pimento, pepper dust, (or
cayenne pepper, should the manufacturer be a _man of taste_;) and
garlic.
The method of detecting the fraud is detailed at page 294 of Mr.
Accum’s book: it is too long for insertion here.
ISINGLASS.
Isinglass, which is prepared from the air-bladders of the sturgeons,
is the subject of sophistication. The dried bladders of horses, the
skins of soles, and the intestinal membranes of calves and sheep are
frequently sold for it. The fraud may be detected by boiling the shreds
in water; when, if the article is adulterated, the spurious ingredients
will obtain only an imperfect insolubility, whereas genuine isinglass
is almost perfectly soluble in water.
Isinglass to be good, should be white, perfectly transparent, dry,
fibrous, and of a faint odour and insipid taste. The best variety
occurs in the form of a lyre or horse-shoe; the worst, flat, in the
form of a pancake. The saltish taste of fictitious isinglass is also
another of the criteria for judging of its goodness.
BLUE OR INDIGO.
This article is subject to great adulteration by the introduction of
foreign ingredients into its manufacture. The easiest and speediest
test of its genuineness is by dissolving or cutting it. By the first
method, if good, it dissolves easily, while that of a coarse or an
adulterated kind dissolves with difficulty, and settles at the bottom
of the vessel. By the second method, (and which is the best criterion
of its goodness,) when cut with a knife, it exhibits a red copper-like
appearance. Where this shade is absent or only very slight, the indigo
is of an inferior quality.—Other signs of its goodness are that it
should be light, of a close texture, break easily, float on water,
be free from white specks or sand, and from white adhesive mould
externally, and when rubbed with the nail, it should have a shining
copper-like hue.
SOAP.
Soap is subject to great adulteration, as every person is aware who has
had an opportunity of witnessing the specimens made twenty years ago,
before “Messieurs les Artistes” had made their prodigious advances,
as our “YANKEE” brethren across the Atlantic phrase it, “in the
_progressing_ knowledge of the age.”
Good mottled soap is hard, but not brittle, well mottled, and without
any rancid, tallowy, or unpleasant acrid smell. If any of this smell
should be present, there has been an undue portion of soda or potash
used in the manufacture. A quantity of fuller’s earth is often used
to conceal the imperfections and add to the weight of the article, by
enabling it to imbibe a large quantity of water. Rancid tallow also is
often used in soap and candle-making, which has had a portion of its
substance quite destroyed by putrefaction. Of course the articles from
which it is made are of a very inferior quality. Those specimens which
have a disagreeable odour are made of horns of animals, woollen rags,
&c. instead of oil, clay often supplies the place of tallow.
There are several methods for proving the quality of soap. The author
of “THE MAIDSERVANT’S COMPANION AND DIRECTORY” informs us that there
are “some people who can ascertain it by the taste.” But as the same
gentleman observes, as it is not likely that many persons will feel a
pleasure in making the experiment, a more pleasant method is to slice
an ounce or two of the soap very thin into a basin, and having poured
boiling water upon the slices, to stir them well till they are quite
dissolved; then place the basin and contents before the fire for the
space of about twelve hours. When the mixture is quite cold, turn it
out of the basin; if no sediment appears at the bottom, it is a sign
of the goodness of the soap. Or the adulteration of the soap may be
detected, by pouring upon a little of the suspected article, thinly
sliced into a bottle, rectified spirit of wine, in the proportion of
one part of soap to six parts of spirit: then, when the bottle, being
slightly stopped, has remained a short time in a warm place, the
adulterated parts of the soap will appear unacted upon by the agent;
but if the soap be genuine, it will have become wholly dissolved.
To those who are desirous of economizing the consumption of soap,
many useful hints may be found in “THE MAIDSERVANT’S COMPANION AND
DIRECTORY;” a work which every sensible master and mistress should
cause to be carefully and attentively perused by their domestics.
CANDLES.
Nor are candles exempt from the sophisticator’s art. Tallow candles,
to be good, should be made of equal parts of bullock’s and sheep’s
fat; which is discoverable by their being of a firm texture, a good
white colour, and not an obnoxious smell. When made of hog’s fat,
they gutter, emit an ill smell, and a thick black smoke. If alum or
pulverized marble has been mingled with the tallow, for the purpose of
giving a white appearance and a hard consistence, the wicks burn with a
dead light, and the alum spits or emits slight explosions from the wick
as it burns.
Some useful directions respecting the management and the economizing
of the consumption of candles, whether wax, mould, or dips, are to be
found in “DOMESTIC COMFORTS AND ECONOMY.”
STARCH.
This commodity is subject to much adulteration by the manufacturer.
When good, it is dry, easily reducible to powder, tasteless, and
without odour. In its use in the laundry, there is no good housewife
but can distinguish, by its effects on her “lavatory occupations,” the
difference between good and bad starch: it is therefore unnecessary to
detail tests.
BEES’ WAX.
Bees’ wax is frequently adulterated with rosin, tallow, pease-meal,
potatoe-starch, and a mixture of oil and litharge. The introduction
of rosin into it may be discovered by its hardness, brittleness, and
want of tenacity. When adulterated with tallow, the fraud may be
detected by scratching the finger over the surface; when its clamminess
and adhesiveness to the fingers will indicate the presence of that
ingredient. In the purchase of cakes of bees’ wax the cake should
be broke, in order to ascertain whether the impurities called foot,
are not ingeniously _encased_ in a shell of pure wax. White wax is
adulterated with carbonate of lead and white tallow, to increase its
weight.
Bees’ wax, when good, is of a compact substance, somewhat unctuous
to the touch, but not adhering to the fingers or to the teeth when
it is kneaded or chewed: and when scratched by the finger-nail, no
obstruction is met with, and but little indentation or fissure made; it
also has an agreeable smell partaking of a slight odour of honey, and a
clear fresh yellow colour. Its texture is also granular.