824 



VINEGAR. 



'Domesday Book;' and it is known that the ab- 

 beys and religious bouses usually possessed a vine- 

 yard. The inmates of these institutions were many 

 of them foreigners, and they contributed to render 

 the cultivation of the vine tolerably successful. 

 The names of several places in Kent are supposed 

 to be derived from their having been the site of 

 vineyards. It was in the south of England that 

 vineyards were most numerous, but there is evi- 

 dence of a vineyard as far north as Derbyshire. In 

 the reign of Henry II., the cultivation of the vine 

 in England began to be neglected. Our intimate 

 connexion with France our actual possession in- 

 deed of a portion of the wine-growing districts of 

 that country contributed to produce this circum- 

 stance. But though the making of wine was no 

 longer carried on in so extensive a manner, yet 

 there is the testimony of Dr Plot, Barnaby Googe, 

 Samuel Hartlib, and others, to the fact, that during 

 the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries a consider- 

 able quantity of native wine was still made in Eng- 

 land from the produce of the grape. 



Artificial heat was not applied to the production 

 of grapes before the beginning of the last century. 

 In Lawrence's ' Fruit Calendar,' 1718, it is stated, 

 that at the Duke of Rutland's, at Belvoir Castle, 

 fires were constantly kept up, from Lady Day to 

 Michaelmas, behind the slope-walls on which the 

 plants were trained. The vinery of the duke of 

 Portland, at Welbeck, near Worksop, was the most 

 celebrated in the country a little after the middle of 

 the century. It was under the direction of Speech- 

 ley, an horticulturist of great merit, and contained 

 seventy different varieties of the vine, all of which 

 were raised to the highest state of perfection. It 

 was at Welbeck that a bunch of Syrian grapes was 

 produced, weighing 19 Ibs. 



In the south of Europe, grapes are often dried 

 either by the sun or in a furnace, and are known in 

 commerce by the name of raisins. Of these there 

 are several sorts, the smallest of which are the 

 raisins of Corinth, more generally known under the 

 name of currants. Raisins are sweeter than the 

 fresh fruit, and are served up at desserts throughout 

 the year. A wine may be obtained by fermenting 

 them a business which is carried on extensively 

 in England. Red wines are made exclusively from 

 red or black grapes, while red or white are used 

 indifferently for white wines. For the manufacture 

 of wines, see Wines. 



VINEGAR (acetic acid). This acid is found 

 combined with potash in the juices of a great many 

 plants; particularly i}\esambucusnigra,galiumveruni, 

 and rhus typhinus. Sweat, urine, and even fresh 

 milk, contain it. It is frequently generated in the 

 stomachs of dyspeptic patients. Almost all dry vege- 

 table substances, and some animal, subjected in close 

 vessels to a red heat, yield it copiously. It is the 

 result, likewise, of a spontaneous fermentation, to 

 which liquid vegetable and animal matters are sub- 

 ject. Strong acids, as the sulphuric and nitric, 

 develope the acetic by their action on vegetables. 

 It was long supposed that the fermentation which 

 forms vinegar is uniformly preceded by the vinous; 

 but this is now known to be a mistake. Cabbages 

 sour in water, making sour-crout ; starch, also, in 

 starch-maker's sour water ; and dough itself, with- 

 out any previous production of wine. 



The varieties of acetic acids known in commerce 

 are five: 1. wine vinegar; 2. malt vinegar; 3. 

 cider vinegar ; 4. sugar vinegar ; 5. wood vinegar. 

 We shall describe, first, the mode of making these 



commercial articles, and then that of extracting the 

 absolute acetic acid of the chemist, either from these 

 vinegars, or directly from chemical compounds, of 

 which it is a constituent. 



The following is the French method of making 

 vinegar: The wine destined for vinegar is mixed, 

 in a large tun, with a quantity of wine lees ; and, 

 the whole being transferred into cloth sacks, 

 placed within a large iron-bound vat, the liquid 

 matter is forced through the sacks by superincum- 

 bent pressure. What passes through is put into 

 large casks, set upright, having a small aperture in 

 their top. In these it is exposed to the heat of 

 the sun in summer, or to that of a stove in winter. 

 Fermentation supervenes in a few days. If the 

 heat should then rise too high, it is lowered by cool 

 air, and the addition of fresh wine. In the skilful 

 regulation of the fermentative temperature consists 

 the art of making good wine vinegar. In summer, 

 the process is generally completed in a fortnight : 

 in winter, double the time is requisite. The vine- 

 gar is then run off into barrels, which contain 

 several chips of birch wood. In about a fortnight, 

 it is found to be clarified, and is then fit for the 

 market. It must be kept in close casks. 



In Great Britain, vinegar is usually made from 

 malt. By mashing with hot water, one hundred 

 gallons of wort are extracted, in less than two 

 hours, from one boll of malt. When the liquor 

 has fallen to the temperature of 75 Fahr., four 

 gallons of the barm of beer are added. After thirty- 

 six hours, it is racked off into casks, which are laid 

 on their sides, and exposed, with their bung-holes 

 loosely covered, to the influence of the sun in sum- 

 mer ; but in winter, they are arranged in a stove- 

 room. In three months, this vinegar is ready for 

 the manufacture of sugar of lead. To make vine- 

 gar for domestic use, however, the process is some- 

 what different. The above liquor is racked off 

 into casks placed upright, having a false cover, 

 pierced with holes, fixed at about a foot from their 

 bottom. On this a considerable quantity of rape, 

 or the refuse from the makers of British wine, or 

 otherwise a quantity of low-priced raisins, is laid. 

 The liquor is turned into another barrel every 

 twenty-four hours, in which time it has begun to 

 grow warm. Sometimes the vinegar is fully fer- 

 mented, as above, without the rape, which is added 

 towards the end, to communicate flavour. 



Cider is the principal source of vinegar in the 

 Northern States of North America. The common 

 family method is as follows : the vinegar barrel, in 

 summer, is placed in .the garret, or on the sunny 

 side of a building, and in winter in a room where it 

 does not freeze. The refuse cider, already sour, or 

 the daily remnants of the family table, are added to 

 some good vinegar in the barrel, or to the mother 

 of vinegar, as it is called. This mother of vinegar 

 is a white or yellowish ropy coagulum, of a muci- 

 laginous appearance, which is formed in the vinegar, 

 and acts as a ferment upon cider not yet thoroughly 

 acidified. The fermentation is often aided by put- 

 ting into it a piece of dough or lean animal muscle, 

 or by adding molasses, or the sugar which falls 

 spontaneously from molasses. In a few weeks, the 

 vinegar will be formed. The vinegar from sugar is 

 made as follows : Ten pounds of sugar are added to 

 eight gallons of water, with yeast and raisins or 

 grape cuttings ; for the sake of flavour, and perhaps 

 to assist in the fermentation, twelve pints cf 

 bruised gooseberries, or other fruits, are added ; and 

 by a process similar to that for cider, a good vine- 



