Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Cassell's Domestic dictionary : an encyclopaedia for the household. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.
24/1290 (page 16)
![cause the presence of both is acknowledged. In how many instances cheaper materials are mixed with the natural products in order to lessen the cost, will be seen in the accounts given of each individual fabric. (See Calico, Carpets, Cloth, Linen, Silk, Woollen Goods.) Adulterations of Food, &c. —The adulteration of food—that is, the practice of making food impure by mixing baser materials with it—is unfortunately too common. Adul- terations of an organic nature are best detected by the microscope; mineral adulterations re- quire chemical analysis for their discovery. The most usual adulterations of food are as follows:— Arrowroot is adulterated with potato flour, sago, and starch. Out of fifty samples examined by Dr. Hassall, twenty-two were adulterated, and in ten of these there was scarcely a particle of the genuine article. In arrowroot mixed with potato starch the particles are of a larger size and have a more glistening appearance. Bread.—Several substances are found in bread, or rather in the bread of some bakeries, which are really adulterations. Amongst these may be named flour of beans, Indian corn, rice, potato starch, alum, sulphate of copper (blue vitriol), chalk, bone dust, plaster of Paris, sand, clay, &c. The organic matters, that is, the inferior flours, do no serious harm; indeed, some of them may be advantageously used when making bread at home, but when they are introduced in order that the flour may absorb a larger quantity of water, and so a hundred loaves be got where the flour by itself would only yield ninety-five loaves, they can only be considered adulterations. The alum and sulphate of copper are positively harmful, and become dangerous when they are put into food like bread, which is in daily use. They are introduced nominally for the purpose of making bread made with inferior flour as white, light, and porous as it would be if the best flour were used. The utmost beauty, sweet- ness, and sponginess may be given to bread without a particle of alum being added, if the best materials alone enter into its composition, or if a little clear lime-water (which is perfectly harmless) be employed to make the dough instead of simple water. The fact is the alum is intended not only to make the bread light, but to enable the dough to carry more water. The other adulterations spoken of are not all the work of the baker. Millers are known to employ various substances to whiten their flour. Some of these are useless as food, some positively injurious. They can easily be detected by chemical tests; but unfortunately these cannot be practised by the ordinary housekeeper. Butter.—The cheaper kinds of butter are frequently adulterated with common flour, oat- meal, pea flour, lard, &6., as well as with a large quantity of salt and water. The presence of lard may be discovered by the flavour and the paleness of the colour. As to the other substances named, if a little of the butter is melted the ingredients will separate and be quite distinct when cold. It needs only that a little of the butter put into a glass tube should be melted by being plunged into hot water. In a i little time the water, the curd, and the true butter or milk fat will separate into layers. The water will be at the bottom, and as there ought not to be more than from eight to thirteen per cent, of water in good butter, the watery layer should not exceed one-eighth of the whole. The adulterations likely to be present in higher-priced butters are an undue proportion of salt and water, and these occa- sionally run up to one-third of the total weight. Cayenne Pepper is adulterated with red lead, vermillion, red ochre, brick dust, common salt, turmeric, &c. It is often made by grinding a, mixture of red woods or sawdust with enough red pods or chillies to make the preparation acrid and pungent. Pure cayenne pepper when burnt leaves a very small quantity of white ash. A red-coloured ash shows the presence of red ochre, brick dust, or some other earthy colouring matter. If a dark-coloured powder or a small metalic globule is left behind, red lead has been introduced. Cocoa and Chocolate are adulterated with potato starch, flour, and clarified mutton suet. Various mineral substances, such as chalk and plaster of Paris, are occasionally mixed with them to increase their weight, and red earth, red ochre, and Venetian red are used for colouring purposes. Coffee. — Ground coffee is frequently adul- terated with roasted grains, roots, acorns, saw- dust, burnt sugar, and, worse than all, baked horses’ and bullocks’ livers. Even whole roasted coffee is not safe, for a patent has actually been taken out to mould chicory into the form of coffee-berries. Perhaps the admixture of chicory is not considered an adulteration; nevertheless, coffee is so much superior to chicory that when a mixture of the two is sold as pure coffee it is nothing else than adultera- tion. The presence of caramel or chicory in ground coffee may easily be detected as follows: —Place a spoonful of coffee gently on the sur- face of a glass of cold water. If the coffee is pure it will float for some time and scarcely colour the liquid. If the contrary is the case it will rapidly absorb the water and sink to the bottom of the glass, communicating a dee]> reddish-brown tint as it falls. Another method of discovering the adulteration: — Shake a spoonful of coffee with a wine-glassful of cold water, and then place the glass on the table. If it is pure it will rise to the surface and scarcely colour the liquid, but if not it will sink to the bottom and the water will be tinged red as before. Curry Powder is frequently adulterated with red lead. Out of twenty-six samples which were examined by Dr. Hassall only seven were genuine. The curry powder sold in the shops must be regarded as merely a substitute for Indian curry powder, the latter containing many ingredients not to be obtained in England. Flour. (See Bread.) Ginger.—Powdered ginger is with difficulty obtained pure. The most frequent adulterants are ground rice, cayenne pepper, various kinds of flour, mustard husks, and turmeric. Out of twenty-one samples Dr. Hassall found that fifteen were adulterated.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21533921_0024.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
