The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1878-12-14
Fruit FlavOrings.

a
sion, is to preserve the fruits of the
garden and the orchard, so that they
may be used when the natural fruits
are no longer in season. We want not
only the pulp of the fruit preserved, so
that we can eat it IN the form of con-
serves, sweetmeats, pies, tarts, pud-
dings, merengues and other pastries
and entrements; but for many culinary
and confectionery purposes, we require
the essences of these fruits to flavor con-
fects, bon-bons, creams, ices; also vari-
Gus drinks, beverages and cordials; not
only for the well, but what is of much
more Importance, for the weak, ailing,
feverish and sick.
Now, what the honest confectioner
tries to preserve, the dishonest chemist
endeavors to displace and supersede by
other and cheaper substitutes. He
compounds spurious fruit essences,
which cost less than the real articles,
and which are yet so like the genuine
originals that the unsophisticated and
unsuspecting who use them cannot tell
the difference. Thousands of house
wives, pastry cooks and confectioners
are now using, ignorantly and inno-
Gently, /" cooking extracts, " 6 fruit ex-
tracts and I" fruit essences" which
contain nothing of the fruit whose
name they bear, nor anything of any
fruit whatever. They are chemical
| fabrications of the laboratory, which
are sold and used as substitutes for the
natural outgrowths of the earth. Men,
women and children are daily using
what they honestly believe to be inno-
cent and healthy products of natural
fruits, but which not only contains no
fruit, but are made up of fictitious sub
stitutes which are injurious to the
stomach and the general health.
If am asked ''Do you mean to say
that men gather grapes of thorns, or figs
of thistles?" | answer that what wish
to be understood as saying is, that men
do literally gather grapes of what is
aOorSe than thorns; and that they gather
| figs of what is worse than MiStleS! am
well aware that this was some time a
paradox; but chemical research and
ingenuity have reduced it to a very
commonplace and every day occur
renee. Modern chemistry has made,
and is now making, by the CARLOAD and
the ton, pineapple essences without any
pineapple, strawberry essences without
any strawberry, raspberry essences
without any raspberry, and so on
through long list of the choicest and
most highly admired fruits Formulas
are framed and sold and followed out,
not only by retail but by wholesale, in
quantities beyond compilation, by
which "pure fruit extracts" are made
without the slightest vestige of the
original fruit itself.
The conscientious chemist is an hon
or and benefactor to his race, but the
chemical manipulation who experiments
and compounds with the view solely to
make money, at the expense of the
health of men and women, deserves to
be sing led out as an object of public
condemnation and reproach. As the
result of patience as great as those who
sought for the philosophers stone. and
others who experimental for the elixir
of life, modern chemists have discover
ed that they can simulate the taste and
fragrance of many berries and fruits.
How the discovery happened to be
made, or how many experiments it cost.
L do not know; but it certainly was at
last found out that several compound
others possess both the odor and the
flavor of certain fruits. These ficti-
tious essences can be made much cheap
er than the genuine. And hence it
comes to pass that nine-tenths of all
fruit essences which are used for flavor
ing, in cooking and confectionery, in
stead of being innocent and healthful,
are spurious and hurtful. BY treating
certain animal fats with potash and
sulphuric acid, these laboratory experts
produce certain other acids. Out of
these last acids are distilled certain
others, which others being intermingled
and compounded in certain proportions
and then colored with cochineal and
various aniline dyes, are made to re-
semble in color, flavor and odor certain
berries of the field and fruits of the
garden.
The basis of these fictitious fruit es-
sences are these ETHEREAL compounds of
organic acids, with the oxides of ethyl
and amyl. Ether, in its common and
ordinary form, is known to the eve by
nearly every intelligent person. This,
in more scientific phrase, is oxide of
ethyl. Amylic ether is the oxide of
amyl. Each of these others possesses
its basic properties, and has its alcohol.
Common, or ethylic ether, corresponds
to common or ethylic alcohol. Amylic
ether corresponds to what is known as
fusil oil. More than forty years ago
these fusil oils were publicly advertised
in the papers of New York City, as one
of the main ingredients for making
grape-juice wine out of rye and corn
juice whisky. The price of these rec
ipes were stated in these advertisements.
1t would seem that, beginning with the
juice of the grape, these laboratory
manipulators transferred their magic
to the sophistication of other fruit
juices as well.
1t is laid down in the books that bu-
tyrate ether is prepared by mixing one
hundred parts of butyric acid with one
hundred parts of alcohol and fifty parts
of concentrated sulphuric acid, and
agitating the mixture for short time.
This butyric ether is very valuable in
alcohol, and is said to be much used to
communicate fine apple flavor to rum.
Butyric ether dissolved in eight or ten
parts of alcohol begins the essence of
pineapple. From twenty to TWENTY-FIVE