Daily American organ. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1856, 1855-06-18
From the New York Times.
Authorizations of Food at Homo and
Abroad


| Il can't be that We are 80 stupidity gulled with
adulterated food and drinks as the English and
| French are according TO the revelations of Accum
and Hassel, GARNER and Chevalier. But abroad
they will not believe in our immunity-yea, be-
lieying the myth of the wooden nutmegs to be
veritable history, they think we cheat each other
for exercise, and invite each other to feasts Of
which no dish Is just what 1t seems and expect to
be fattered much or little, according TO sue
/ cess In our mutual dupings
The truth lies somewhere between tho two no
doubt. We would not be too credulous, but when
we hear 30 often of slipped calves meat, and of
veal that was never born, 1t requires no great faith
nor owls eyes to see great deal more OF the same
sort.
This subject has received good deal Of atten-
tion lately in London. The last number of the
| London Quarterly sums up the facts presented IN
the Lancet Commission reports in pleasant way,
though it gets off little that has not been published
already. With the Quarterly lying before us, We
take peep into the dishes that are most common
on all our tables
Mustard.-Dr Hassel found every one of forty
two samples aduterated more or less with -four for
bulk and turmeric for color. That Yankee mus
tard Is sometimes weakened with -four we may adj
init but we don't believe that Mr. HIS microscope
| would find much -four in most of that in our
ket; the mustard grows too freely in our fields to
make it pay. The oil (often substituted for sweet
oily is expressed before 1t is used, but the -four is
all the sharper for its absence.
| Vinegar, in London is first watered, and then
sharpened with sulphuric acid. Probably this is
not unknown in our longitude. Apples are plenty,
and cider is not fashionable SO we may generally
rely on our vinegar as the genuine article But
water is plenty, and the smack of most that we
taste is much more Of the water than Of the oil of
vitriol
| \ Pepper.-This article is diluted with the sweep
ings of the peppermint, called P. D., or pepper
dust nasmuch as the P. d. is in much demand,
the d. P. D., or dirt of pepp'r-dust is not wasted
Doubtless the samples we have are no better than
our British brethren get, and so we sprinkle a
part of our peck of dirt into our soups and on our
sauces, and never take dinner without it--and
perhaps it answers just well if it cleaner.
| Red Pepper.-The Lancet Committee found "a
| out of % samples aduterated with white mustard
Seed Cheaper brickdust, (ike chips in porridge)
ground rice, salt and sawdust, and l3 of them col
ored with red lead! which, to say the least is not
good to prevent paralysis.
Meats in London, are what they seem ONLY
while in joints. But the soups, the sausages, the
meat pies the hashes, have not often clean pedi-
gree. witness said he could sell hundred car
casses of cows lying dead in the neighborhood of
London--no matter what they died of-n twenty
| four hours. New York is not an unworthy rival
OF London in this trick of economising dead and
spoiled meats. A butcher, of careful statements
and perfect veracity, told us that he had seen one
man expose half dozen calves for sale in a single
day--that had not been born day each. When
cattle are stolen, the calves they may be large with
are not wasted, they go to make the fabby flesh
of children that are to be felow-citizens with u.s.
or to scken them and slowly poison them.
Bread is said to be adulterated with potatoes
but inasmuch as that really improves the favor of
the loaf we can easily forgive it. and by the of
alum and salt, which, besides whitening it, cause
a great ABSORPTION Of water, 80 that the pound is
really considerable less than a pound Of -four,
though the loaf may fairly turn the scale. We
doubt not that some Of our bakers have learned
the alum trick Their comparatively large white
loaves have dry, sour taste, that brings one at
last to look on bread and butter as a very stupid
edible, ct only for cheap boarding houses Our
milsrs have not probably learned the trick Of mix
ing the alum in the -four barrel, though to that
height Of aduteration Londoners have been proved
| to have arrived.
Tea.-That we drink dyed tea every evening, we
were taught to suspect by Mr.. Robert Fortune some
years since--to every hundred pounds, he says
| more than half pound Of Prussan blue and gyp-
sum and he thinks II as bad as for a tailed Chi
naman to eat an unadulterated and uridyed rat
"There is no such thing as pure Green Tea to be
met with In England, says the Quarterly, and if
that Is true, none probably In America. Moreover
DR.. Hassen found the cheapest teas tho only per-
fectly pure ones. But the cheapest teas in
market are not free from the dye. We have often
noticed the dry coloring matter hurying as pre-
cipitate 70 the bottom Of the cup we have taken
by way Of experiment, at cheap eating.houses.-
Moreover, the taste Of coppera Is very strong in
these fusions-stronger than the Doctors micro
scope his testglass developed In the London tea.
But in Coffee our transatlantic brethren
tainy ahead of us, We cannot make any preten-
sons to SO extensive authorizations in this article
as they do and this is owing very considerably to
the fact that coffee mills are still in fashion-that
the berry is bought either green or burned, but
whole, from the grocer, and ground each morning
as Il Ia needed. There can be mistake that IL Is
coffee We are slipping, where we take this trouble.
Otherwise there is security. The chicory which,
In the wild state, grows very abundantly in our
| Immediate vicinity Is not yet much grown for the
market We find it here, imported from France,
however, and very pleasant drink Il makes when
mixed half and half with coffee. II imparts 10 the
LIQUID thick brown appearance, and doubtless its
color has satisfied cheaply many drinker who must
have his coffee look strong, whatever its taste may
be. Chicory retails with us at three shillngs the
pound At that price there is little danger Of It's
coming into very large use, though from the fact
Il gives so rich color in the cup it is hyorite
at restaurants and many hotels. Since 1910 mix
ing chicory with coffee has been allowed in Eng
land by law. We doubt If there is anything I'M
wholesome about II, but Il does not amount to
much either way II is not itself free from adul
teration-chicory is mixed with red lead to give it
color and that with brick dust TO cheaper it. There
is one delicacy that Englishmen have long enjoyed
which Il seems that we have not yet adopted. They
take the livers Of oxen and horses, bake them dry
grind them to powder, and sell at fourpence or go
a pound to the cheap coffee makers Horse liver
coffee is said to be superior to that concocted Of
oxen livers. The hint we are sure viii not be lost
TO the next offal contractor.
Mik-The milk adulteration has been so over
done, that pure milk begins to be profitable again
And yet, no doubt we lose thousands Of children
annually, because most Of the city milk is from
diseased, slop-fed cows. The watering nuisance
is by no means abated, as may be discovered by
anybody who, finding the supply from her Orange
county milkman scant, sends to the candyshop or
grocery to replenish. II went make alum curds,
and It Is very bard making custsrds out Of it,
Suoar.-Brown sugar they say swarms in the
English groceries with disgusting anmalcnla; but
they seldom trouble the samples exposed in our
stores Flour we do hear Of in sugar, and sand /;
but neither is m lch added do We believe, though
| NJ /. vvithout