THE CHEMISTRY OF COOKERY. 375 



this purpose. This is a large metallic vat or boiler with air-tight cover 

 and a false bottom, from which rises a trumpet-shaped tube through 

 the middle of the vat, and passing through an air-tight fitting in the 

 cover. The chamber formed by the false bottom is filled with water 

 by means of this tube, the object being to prevent the wine at the 

 lower part from being heated directly by the fire which is below the 

 water-chamber. A thermometer is also inserted air-tight in the lid, 

 with its bulb half-way down the vat. To allow for expansion a tube 

 is similarly fitted into the lid. This is bent siphon-like, and its lower 

 end dipped into a flask containing wine or water, so that air or vapor 

 may escape and bubble through, but none enter. Even in drawing off 

 from the Pasteuring vat into the cask the wine is not allowed to flow 

 through the air, but is conveyed by a pipe which bends down, and dips 

 to the bottom of the barrel. 



If heated with exposure to air, the wine acquires a flavor easily 

 recognized as the " gotit de cuit," or flavor of cooking. By Pasteur's 

 method, properly carried out, the only changes are those which would 

 be otherwise produced by age. 



These changes are somewhat obscure. One effect is probably that 

 which more decidedly occurs in the maturing of whisky and other 

 spirits distilled from grain — viz., the reduction of the proportion of 

 amylic alcohol or fusel-oil, which, although less abundantly produced 

 in the fermentation of grape-juice than in grain or potato spirit, is 

 formed in varying quantities. Caproic alcohol and caprylic alcohol 

 are also produced by the fermentation of grape-juice or the "marc" 

 of grapes, i. e., the mixture of the whole juice and the skins. These 

 are acrid, ill-flavored spirits, more conducive to headache than the 

 ethylic alcohol, which is proper spirit of good wine. Every wine- 

 drinker knows that the amount of headache obtainable from a given 

 quantity of wine, or a given outlay of cash, varies with the sample, 

 and this variation appears to be due to these supplementary alcohols 

 or ethers. 



Another change appears to be the formation of ethers having choice 

 flavors and bouquets ; cenanthic ether, or the ether of wine, is the most 

 important of these, and it is probably formed by the action of the 

 natural acid salts of the wine upon its alcohol. Johnstone says : " So 

 powerful is the odor of this substance, however, that few wines con- 

 tain more than one forty-thousandth part of their bulk of it. Yet it 

 is always present, can always be recognized by its smell, and is one of 

 the general characteristics of all grape-wines." This ether is stated to 

 be the basis of Hungarian wine-oil, which, according to the same au- 

 thority, has been sold for flavoring brandy at the rate of sixty-nine 

 dollars per pound. I am surprised that up to the present time it has 

 not been cheaply produced in large quantities. Chemical problems 

 that appear far more diflicult have been practically solved. — Knowl- 

 edge. 



