Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1874-03-05

ADULTERATlONS OF FOOD.
The Tricks Of Trade - Praetissd In
England
From the Saturday Review.
The practice Of coloring or "faoing"
tea is 20 notorious that it ought de.
oeive nobody. Habit and Imagination
enables us to perceive that peculiar
and grateful flavor is impaired to
ordinary black tea by an infusion of
green tea at = higher price. Speaking
generally, the true green tea comes
from Shanghai and the false from
Carton. DR.. Hassall gave lately an
analysis Of an article which, with COM
mendeble honesty, was announced as
handsome made Canton gunpower,
to initiate true Shanghai Ping Suey
gunpowder. This sample was " very
strongly magnetic" containing 48 46
per cent. Of Lie tea earthly matter
partly in the folded leaves." It was
faced with tumeric, Prussian blue,
and = white mineral powder. The ash
Of the tea was 1890 per cent, whereas
the ash OF good tea is less than 6 per
cent. 50 that extraneous matters
must have been largely introduced in
to il. DR.. Hassall mentions in
the same number of his journal dust
osfksvnro ~whsn1 IN .n~,n - n11~,
genuine and is sold at very low price.
1t 10 not known to the public at large,
and is much used for mixing. The
public, if they were sensible, would in.
tinitely prefer tho mean-looking tea.
dust to the handsome made Canton
gunpowder: It ia an interesting ques-
ton whether China and other accessi-
BILE countries can grow enough tea to
supply the world. If they can, We
should prefer to receive their tea and
leave their dirt, Of which We have an
adequate provision at home. If they
cannot, we had better adopt Cobbett's
principle and stick to beer. At pres
ent one analyst tells that our tea is
faced ;" another finds s'living organ.
isms" in the water with which We fill
our kettles; and third suggests that
our milk may be adulterated with water
drawn from q we'll polluted by infiltra-
ton of sewage. Our beef is probably
horse-desh, and our mustard IL flour
colored with tumeric and seasoned
with capsicum. A few years ago, says
DR.. Hassall, genuine mustard was
scarcely to be met With in the market.
The manufacturers made three qualities
OF mustard, distinguished 40 "fine,"
"superane," and "double superane."
They all consisted of the above named
ingredients, and the first named con-
tanned the least mustard, while even the
double superfine contained q good
deal of -four. The value which
all trades attach to names is
remarkable, considering that neither
dealers nor customers expect
realities to correspond to them
The commonest kind of sherry must
be marked ~. s. o." and mustard
largely composed of colored -four ranks
az " double superfine." Perhaps the
reason why genuine articles are hardly
ever sold in England is that the Ian.
guage has no epithets sufficiently mag
nificent to apply to them. It was al
legged ny q correspondent of the Times
that wheat flour improves mustard, on
which DR.. Hassall observes that in the
" fine article of commerce, which
contains least mustard, there is most
-four, which seems to him extraordina-
~ it the flour is only used to improve
the mustard. A practice analogous to
that of " facing" tea is whitening
bread by means Of alum. II q West
End baker made bread from the best
wheat -four and used no whitening
matter the bread would be yellowish,
like the homemade bread of q country
house, and his customers would reject
it. An example somewhat similar is
that of putting sulphate of iron into
beer to give it head" It is to be
feared that our grandmothers were ad-
dicted to what they called greening'
pickles by putting them into copper
vessel. We need not dwell on the
familiar atrocities of colored con-
tectionery, nor upon the use of
red lead in cheese. But new horror
has been added to the list by the au-
thor OF little book on Authorizations
of Food, who has discovered that
mushroom ketchup ia adulterated by
"the juice expressed from the livers
of purifying horses" After this it is
almost relief to revert to the older
theory that ketchup was made out of
crushed blackbeetles. Among the
probable Ingredients of butter is e rag
pulp" and straw-pulp is largely used
in making jam. We dot find that this
author sanctions tho popular idea that
caif's-foot jelly RECOMMENDED for its
strengthening qualities to invalids) is
made out of old combs. He tells us
that "plain spirit is produced from
grains at the distlllery, and it becomes
gin, brandy or rum, at the pleasure of
the rectifier. Many eo-ca1led wines,
he says, contain the genius article in
only homeopathic proportion. This
statement is indisputably true, and it
leads us to inquire whether the wine
merchants are to be treated on the
same principle as the tea-dealers. If
they are, the unlucky grocer who sells
both articles is likely to be doubly
punished.