Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-07-27
TRASH In OUR MOUTHS.
Out of Decayed Refuse-JeIIieS
Out of Apple ParingS-But-
ter a Curiosity.

This is free country" remarked a
well-known chemist to the Herald re-
porter; too free, SO far as the prepare
ton of articles of food is concerned. /
am sorry to say that MANY prominent
the most pernicious authorizations of food
and drink. Originally caused by the de-
mand for cheap goods, the business of
adulterating articles of food has grown to
such dimensions and is backed by so
much capital that it will take legislation
of the most stringent kind to suppress
that kind of trade"
Then the man of science launched forth
into an elaborate discourse on "substi-
tutes" which are sold for the genuine ar
ticle. Maple syrup is artifcially pro-
duced on an extensive scale by taking
one part of maple sugar for flavoring pur-
poses, thirteen parts of glucose, and
sufficient brown sugar to give sweetness
Molasses, too, is made from glucose,
favored with vanillin, and colored with
caramel, with small quantity of genuine
molasses added for the purpose of giving
it the molasses odor. However harmless
glucose may be claimed to be, the fact
remains that it is fraud designed to
swindle people through the channels of
trade. The apology made for glucose
that it is harmless will not for vanillin,
an article that has recently become very
popular as flavor for ice cream-is made
from coniferin, and the latter in turn is
obtained from the resin of several kinds
of pine trees. Bichromate of potassium
and sulphuric acid are the agents that
convert resin into vanillin. Fruit jellies,
such as are offered in grocery stores, have
mostly no other relation to fruit than that
they bear the name. Nearly all of them
are made from apple bearings, while
butyric ether, venanthic ether and other
deleterious substances give the flavor to
be obtained.
Tomato catsup, manufactured by the
average modern dealer, is perhaps the
vilest compound in existence. The bruised
and rotten fruit which is unfit for canning,
and also the skins thrown away by the
Gamer, are gathered and filed in barrels
which are placed in the sun for fermenta
ton. There is stick in each barrel for
the purpose of stirring up the contents
a process which is continued for weeks,
until the stage of active fermentation is
passed. Then the rotten mess is boiled,
and spices are added. That gives the
catsup of commerce. The erroneous
spelling of "catchup' would seem to be
justified.
Of butter hardly anything need to be
said. The regulation, bald-headed,
creamery butter has become a luxury
since oleomargarine, suene, butterine,
and lardine have become articles of
All these villifcations of the |
genuine article contain lard, suet, tallow, |
and degenerated fats as main substances.
The ruseS which butterine dealers resort |
to in order to foist their wares upon peo-
pie who do not want them would furnish |
reading. The Herald could |
surprise a good many housewives by let
ting them into the secret that the butter |
which is supplied to them fresh twice !
week in summer and once week in win |
ter by imam from the country" is really |
in Canal street basement, |
and is supplied twice week in summer |
simply because the man is afraid that it t
will not keep any longer.
Mince meat is usually an abominable |
made from the otfal of abat-
.oirs, with the aid of forty-rod whisky |
and adulterated spices. Sulphuric acid,
ime and vinegar have been found in the
nince meat of commerce. 1t costs about |
cent to flavor fifty pounds OF the vile !
stuff, gathered up in the slaughter houses. |
Corn meal, old and musty sea biscuits,
cracker sweepings and the like constitute |
/ large percentage of the pulverized black |
pepper sold to-day. Proof spirits, simple
syrup, water, vinegar, tincture of kino,
5artaric acid, cherry juice and malva |
lowers give cold" port wine. An ounce !
If coil of cognac" in forty gallons of
proof spirits makes barrel of French"
brandy. Thus the adulteration OF drinks |
could be continued, including the glycer-
me, starch, corn, rice, cocculus indicus, |
maple shavings and other ingredients
that help up to make the modern "lager |
beer" The lard investigation in Chi
cago is of too recent origin to bear ex-
tensive quotation. Lard is adulterated
with tallow and fatty offal, and it is !
stretched" with water, of which, by a |
judicious process, it viii absorb fully 10 /
per cent.
Although there should not be much |
in obtaining pure flour in this |
rich country, flour is frequently adulter-
ated with terra alba There is alum in
bread, and turnips are worked into horse
radish, while cotton seed oil is sold as
pure Italian olive oil.
'Lawp' he exclaimed, in conclusion.
There's plenty of law, if such as there
is were properly enforced. But because
the law is not explicit on every little de-
tail, and chiefly because there is no official
whose prescribed duty it is to enforce the
law. matters continue to 60 on from bad
to worse every year.