and poisonous Sophistkations. 105 



" To make greening*. — " Take a bit of verdigris, the big- 

 ness of a hazel-nut, finely powdered ; half-a-pint of distilled vine- 

 gar, and a bit of alum powder, with a little bay salt. Put all in 

 a bottle, shake it, and let it stand till clear. Put a small tea- 

 spoonful into codlings, or whatever you wish to green." 



Mrs. E. Raffeld t directs, " to render pickles green, boil them 

 with halfpence, or allow them to stand for twenty-four hours in 

 copper or brass pans." 



To detect the presence of copper, it is only necessary to mince 

 the pickles, and to pour liquid ammonia, diluted with an equal 

 bulk of water, over them in a stopped phial : if the pickles con- 

 tain the minutest quantity of copper, the ammonia assumes a 

 blue colour. 



Adulteration of Cream . — Cream is often adulterated with rice 

 powder or arrow-root. The former is frequently employed for 

 that purpose by pastry-cooks, in fabricating creams and custards, 

 for tarts, and other kinds of pastry. The latter is often used in 

 the London dairies. Arrow-root is preferable to rice powder; 

 for, when converted with milk into a thick mucilage by a gentle 

 ebullition, it imparts to cream, previously diluted with milk, a 

 consistence and apparerit richness, by no means unpalatable, 

 without materially impairing the taste of the cream. 



The arrow-root powder is mixed up with a small quantitv of 

 cold skimmed milk into a perfect, smooth, uniform mixture ; 

 more milk is then added, and the whole boiled for a few minutes, 

 to effect the solution of the arrow-root: this compound, when 

 perfectly cold, is mixed up with the cream. From 220 to 230 

 grains (or three large tea-spoonsful) of arrow-root are added to 

 one pint of milk ; and one part of this solution is mixed with 

 three of cream. It is scarcely necessary to state, that this so^- 

 phistication is innocuous. 



The fraud may be detected by adding to a tea-spoonful of the 

 sophisticated cream a few drops of a solution of iodine in spirit 

 of wine, which instantly produces with it a dark blue colour. 

 Genuine cream acquires, by the addition of this test, a faint yel- 

 low tinge. 



Poisonous Confectionary. — -In the preparation of sugar plums, 

 comfits, and other kinds of confectionary, especially those sweet- 

 meats of inferior quality frequently exposed to sale in the open 

 streets, for the allurement of children, the grossest abuses are 

 committed. The white comfits, called sugar pease, arc chiefly 

 composed of a mixture of sugar, starch, and Cornish clay (a. specie!* 

 of very white pipe-clay); and the red sugar drops are usually co- 

 loured with the inferior kind of vermilion- This i)iguicnt is gc- 



* Modem (Jookciy, or 'I'lic English Housewife — 2d edition, ii.!J4. 

 f The I'iiiylibh lluiibtkccper, p. '6'o'2, X>\. 



ncruilv 



