VINEGAR AND ITS MOTHER. 379 



liquid is turned first to alcohol, and the alcohol then changes to acetic 

 acid, which is the acid in vinegar. 



In Great Britain, vinegar, until recently, has been manufactured 

 almost entirely from malt — a wort, or sugary solution, weaker than 

 is employed for beer, being first made. Of late years, glucose, cane- 

 sugar, and molasses, have been largely used. British "proof -vine- 

 gar" contains 4*6 per cent of anhydrous acid. A notion formerly 

 prevailed that sulphuric acid acted as a preservative to vinegar, and 

 one tenth of one per cent was allowed to be added. Makers con- 

 tinued the practice after they knew that it had no such effect, as it 

 increased the apparent strength of their vinegar at a slight cost. This 

 addition is now an illegal adulteration. 



In France, and elsewhere in Europe, the manufacturer starts with 

 an alcoholic liquid, already partly acetified — light wines that have 

 turned sour being generally employed. The French name, vinaigrc, 

 from which the English word vinegar is derived, means sour wine. 

 Two sorts are produced — white-wine and red-wine vinegar — the for- 

 mer being generally preferred. These are fine-flavored and somewhat 

 stronger than the malt-vinegar of Great Britain. Six and one half to 

 seven per cent of acid have been found in French vinegars. Sour ale 

 and beer do not yield good vinegar. 



In the United States, cider vinegar has long held the preference, 

 and, if the cider has been made from sound, sweet apples, the vinegar 

 has a very agreeable flavor and color. The old-fashioned way which 

 is followed by farmers in making vinegar is to set out-of-doors in the 

 spring a barrel of cider which has become too "hard" and sour to 

 drink, from the sugar partly turning to alcohol and acetic acid. The 

 bung is taken out of the barrel, and the bung-hole is loosely stopped 

 by sticking the neck of a large bottle into it. Such exposure to the 

 air at a warm temperature effects the conversion of the cider to vine- 

 gar in three or four months. The change goes on very slowly, be- 

 cause the air can act only on the surface of the liquid, and fresh por- 

 tions of alcohol are brought to the surface only as the newly formed 

 acid sinks and mingles with the liquid below. The best cider-vine- 

 gar is made from new cider, and it is well to cause several fermenta- 

 tions to take place by adding a fresh quantity of cider every two 

 weeks. 



Vinegar is chemically a dilute solution of acetic acid, containing 

 minute quantities of fragrant ethers, which give it its odor, and some 

 brownish substance, to which is due its color. Other matters, derived 

 from the liquid from which the vinegar is made, are sometimes acci- 

 dentally present, as sugar, gum, starch, cream of tartar, and other 

 salts, etc. It usually consists of between ninety-three and ninety-seven 

 per cent of water, the rest being acid, except a fraction of a per cent 

 of solids. The transformation of the sugar in fruit juices or sirups to 

 acetic acid takes place according to the following chemical reactions : 



