Cider vinegar

“ Since 1906, claimant has sold throughout the United States its product manufactured from unevaporated as well as from evaporated apples as 'apple cider' and 'apple cider vinegar,' selling its vinegar under the brand above quoted, or under the brand 'Sun Bright brand apple cider vinegar made from selected apples.' Its output of vinegar is about 100,000 barrels a year. ”

“ Four quarts of cider vinegar, five pounds of sugar, a quarter of a pound of cinnamon, and two ounces of clove, to seven pounds of fruit. Scald the vinegar and sugar together, and take off the scum; add the spices and boil it up again, and pour it immediately upon the fruit. Scald the vinegar twice more at intervals of three or four days, and cover the jar close after it is poured in.
A less expensive way is found to be very good. Put four pounds of sugar to eight of fruit, half the quantity of spice, a spoonful of salt, and one also of powdered allspice. ”

“ It was stipulated that the juice of unevaporated apples when subjected to alcoholic and subsequent acetous fermentation is entitled to the name 'apple cider vinegar.' The vinegar in question was not the same as if made from apples without dehydration. ”

“ All vinegar shall have an acidity equivalent to the presence of not less than five per cent. by weight of absolute acetic acid, and in the case of cider vinegar shall contain in addition not less than one and one-half per cent. by weight of cider vinegar solids upon full evaporation over boiling water, and if any vinegar contains less than the above amount of acidity, or if any cider vinegar contains less than the above amount of cider vinegar solids, such vinegar shall be deemed to be adulterated within the meaning of this Act. ”

“ If a sample of vinegar be placed in a shallow dish on a warm stove or boiling teakettle and heated to a temperature sufficient for evaporation and not sufficient to burn the residue, the odor of the warm residue is also characteristic of the different kinds of vinegar. Thus, the residue from cider vinegar has the odor of baked apples and the flavor is acid and somewhat astringent in taste, and that from wine vinegar is equally characteristic. ”

“ A metal cover will not answer. Let it stand till morning, when it should be put in a sieve or hung up in a strainer to drain. Put three quarts of best cider vinegar over the fire to scald. Tie up in a cloth two cups of white mustard-seed, half a cup of sliced horse-radish, half an ounce of whole cloves, and the same of cinnamon and allspice, and throw into the vinegar. When the brine has all drained from the tomatoes, pack them closely in a stone pot and pour the [Pg 481] boiling spice and vinegar over it. ”

“ Vinegars may be adulterated by the addition of mineral acids as sulfuric or hydrochloric. Caramel or the coal-tar dyes may be employed to improve the color or to give color to an artificial product. Malic acid is always present in cider vinegar. Potassium acid tartrate occurs in true wine vinegar. Poisonous metals may be present in vinegars containing free mineral acid. Entirely artificial cider vinegar is often found on the market.
Preparation of the Sample for Testing
If the vinegar is turbid from any suspended matter, it should be filtered. ”

“ When considered independently of the product, the method of manufacture is not material. The act requires no disclosure concerning it. And it makes no difference whether vinegar made from dried apples is or is not inferior to apple cider vinegar. ”

“ The ash of pure cider vinegar is always alkaline. If a vinegar should show a neutral reaction this would certainly indicate the presence of a free mineral acid. If the ash be alkaline, no acid except nitric could have been present, and this is seldom, if ever, used as an adulterant of vinegar.
When the Ash is Alkaline Apply
Ashby’s Test.—Extract 0.5 gram of logwood in 100 cc. of water and dry a drop or two on a porcelain surface. Then add a drop of the vinegar and dry again. If the residue is red, a mineral acid is present; if yellow, mineral acids are absent. ”

“ Every person who manufactures for sale or offers or exposes for sale as cider vinegar, any vinegar not the legitimate product of pure apple juice, known as apple cider or vinegar, not made exclusively of said apple cider or vinegar, into which any foreign substances, ingredients, drugs or acids have been introduced, as may appear by proper tests, shall for each such offence be punished by fine of not less than fifty nor more than one hundred dollars. ”

“ The shippers and consumers, therefore, avoid paying freight on the water in ordinary cider. In addition, the product, when properly barreled, because of its higher amount of sugar, keeps better than raw cider, which quickly turns to vinegar.
The process, as described by the department's specialists, consists of freezing ordinary cider solid. The cider ice is then crushed and put into centrifugal machines such as are used in making cane sugar. When the cider ice is whirled rapidly the concentrated juice is thrown off and collected. The water remains in the machine as ice. ”

“ MAYONNAISE DRESSING. MRS. T. H. LINSLEY. Take the yolks of six eggs, one teacup best cider vinegar, one teacup white sugar, one tablespoon pure mustard, one-fourth pound of butter, one teaspoon salt, one pint water, two tablespoons corn starch. Put the water and vinegar in granite iron vessel, and let come to a boil. Beat the rest of the ingredients to a cream; stir this into the vinegar rapidly to prevent burning. Put in self-sealing can, and keep in a cool place. ”

“ Then follows the fermentation to produce the acetic acid and finish the vinegar. A "starter" of "mother" can be used, but it is best to take out a gallon or more of the cider when "racking" and add a pint to a quart of a good grade cider vinegar. Let it stand in a warm place, well covered with cheesecloth, and in from [Pg 315] four to ten days a granular, brownish cake should begin to form. This starter can then be put directly into the casks, a pint or more to each cask. If the starter develops a white, slimy coat, throw it out and start again. ”

“ Acetic acid may be obtained by distilling wood. If it could be manufactured cheaply enough, vinegar made from wood would be fully as wholesome as the best cider vinegars, but this being an expensive process of manufacture, the temptation of the food adulterator is to make the vinegar of sulfuric acid, which is much cheaper than the mild acetic acid, but much more harmful when taken into the body. ”

“ Make a brine of boiled salt and water, strong enough to bear up an egg after it is cold. Skim it while it boils. Pour it [Pg 183] on the nuts, and let them lie in it twelve days. Then drain them; lay them in a jar, and pour over them the best of cider vinegar, boiled with pepper-corns, cloves, allspice, mustard, ginger, mace, and horseradish. This should be cooled before it is poured on. Cover close, and keep them a year before using them. Walnuts are done in the same way. The vinegar becomes an excellent catsup, by many persons preferred to any other. ”

“ The Douglas Packing Company appeared as claimant, and by its answer admitted that the vinegar was labeled as alleged, and that evaporated apples had been used in its manufacture. It averred that nevertheless it was pure cider vinegar and denied adulteration and misbranding. A jury was waived, and the case was submitted on the pleadings and an agreed statement of facts. The court found that the charge of adulteration was not sustained, but held that the vinegar was misbranded. Claimant appealed, and the Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the judgment. ”

“ Sophistications of cider vinegar that will not be detected by some one or more of the above given tests are not likely to be met with, for the simple reason that they are not profitable. To translate percentages of acid strength into the old commercial terms of grains of soda bicarbonate per troy ounce, the per cent. ”

“ Or brown a tablespoonful of flour in the oven or on top of the stove on a baking tin; feed a few pinches at a time to a child and it will often check a diarrhoea. The tincture of "kino"—of which from ten to thirty drops, mixed with a little sugar and water in a spoon, and given every two or three hours, is very efficacious and harmless—can be procured at almost any druggist's. Tablespoon doses of pure cider vinegar and a pinch of salt, has cured when all else failed. ”

“ As rotten apples, and more or less of other kinds of dirt, commonly go into the cider-mill with the sound fruit, and no thorough purification of the product is attempted, not much can be said for home-made cider-vinegar on the score of purity. ”

“ If you should have any juice of cherries, currants, or blackberries, put it in, or if you can get cheap sour raisins, they will be an improvement to the flavor of the vinegar; a tea-cup of burnt sugar will give it a good color.
Vinegar made in this way will keep pickles good for several years. If the cider has not sufficient strength it will take longer to make. ”

“ You may always have good vinegar for pickling, and other purposes, by taking a little pains. Get a tight whiskey barrel, if it is clean you need not rinse it, and put into it ten gallons of the best vinegar you can procure, with one quart of whiskey and one quart of molasses; every day for a week, add a gallon of good cider that has not been watered, and shake the barrel each time ”

“ The sour and rough-tasted apples contain less sugar and more malic acid than some of the other varieties, and the presence of this acid impedes the conversion of the alcohol of the cider into vinegar; a change which their rude mode of operating renders otherwise inevitable. But cider made with such apples never equals in quality that prepared at a low temperature, from fruit abounding in sugar, provided equal skill is exercised in the manufacture as in the process of converting malt-worts into beer. ”

“ There is a lot of it around nowadays because, while it is easy to turn sweet cider into hard, it is a good deal easier to turn hard cider into vinegar. You add the vinegar to suit your taste—and this depends a good deal on the kind of salad you are going to have. For asparagus I like the dressing a little tart. For lettuce, not so tart. But this is a matter you can easily adjust to your own satisfaction. ”

“ Cider is made from apples. In a few hours after the juice is pressed out of the apples, if it is left open to the air the sugar begins to change.
Like the sugar in the grape, it changes into alcohol and bubbles of gas.
At first, there is but little alcohol in cider, but a little of this poison is dangerous.
More alcohol is all the time forming until in ten cups of cider there may be one cup of alcohol. Cider often makes its drinkers ill-tempered and cross.
Cider and wine will turn into vinegar if left in a warm place long enough. ”

“ No one having an apple orchard should ever buy vinegar, and ought to have some to sell to neighbors or at the stores. To make: Sweet cider carefully made should be placed in clean, sweet, oak barrels, placed in a room where sun and frost cannot reach it. ”

“ The two words I have just italicized explain why so many Americans imagine they do not like salads with vinegar and oil dressing. Unless the oil is good and the vinegar pure and fragrant such a salad does no good but may do much harm; and it is seldom that one can buy good oil and vinegar in a grocery store.
Of all the food adulterators none are more rascally and abundant than the makers of artificial vinegar. Pure vinegars made of cider, wine, or malt can be sold at a very good profit to the manufacturer and dealer at from ten to twenty cents a quart ”

“ It should be washed, dried, pounded, sifted, and stored in a glass jar, and covered close. It is common to find it growing damp in the salt-stands for the table. It should then be set by the fire to dry, and afterward be reduced to fine powder again. Few things are more disagreeable than coarse or damp salt on a table.
Vinegar is best made of wine or cider. Buy a keg or half-barrel of it, set it in the cellar, and then keep a supply for the casters in a bottle in the kitchen. If too strong, it eats the pickles. Much manufactured vinegar is sold that ruins pickles, and is unhealthful. ”

“ The mycoderm seems to have an oxidizing action, and so, when the alcohol in the liquid fails, it probably grows at the expense of the acetic acid, converting it to carbonic dioxide and water. There is a popular notion that the presence of "mother" shows that the vinegar is made from cider, and is of good quality, but the vinegar-plant appears also in vinegar made from molasses, and it is really as undesirable in vinegar as mold on bread.
The little, wriggling creatures which swarm in some vinegars have been credited by uneducated persons with being the "life" of the vinegar. ”

“ Instead of the apple-juice, as soon as it is expressed from the fruit, being placed in a cool situation, where the temperature should not exceed 50° or 52° Fahr., it is frequently left exposed to the full heat of autumn. In this way much of the alcohol formed by the decomposition of the sugar is converted into vinegar by the absorption of atmospheric oxygen, and thus the liquor acquires that peculiar and unwholesome acidity known in the cider districts by the name of “roughness.” ”

“ It is poor economy to buy vinegar by the gallon, Buy a barrel, or half a barrel, of really strong vinegar, when you begin house-keeping. As you use it, fill the barrel with old cider, sour beer, or wine-settlings, &c., left in pitchers, decanters or tumblers; weak tea is likewise said to be good: nothing is hurtful, which has a tolerable portion of spirit, or acidity. ”