The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1894-01-11
ADULTERATED FOOD.
DECEPTloNS REsoRTEo TO BY THE
GREEDY AND INSCRIPTIONS.

A"ior"'io" " hich w Ill enable tho House.
wife to Tell the Genuine From tho Doc
tored Article-A Little joke mt tho
Butchers Expcnse-Bogus Spices.
Tho adulteration of articles of food
is by no means an invention of modern
times, but was practiced by our clussic-
al ancestors. During the middle ages
the cunning baker mixed his flour with
lime, sand and gypsum, and on discovery
was thrown into n prison cell and COM
PEELED to cat the product of his entire
bakery, which cured him of tho fraudu-
lent habit.
Tho most important article of food in
every household is the meat. Tho meat
which comes from healthy animals is
distinguished by Il pleasant odor and
fresh color, from Il delicate pink to IL
deep carnine, according to tho animal
from which it comes. 1t must be elias
tic to the touch. The dent which is
caused by pressing q finger on it must
disappear when the pressure is removed.
The fatty substance of tho meat is n
good indicator of its quality. In healthy
animals the fat is yellow and elastic
and has pleasant odor. The fat in the
meat from sick animals is pale, gray
and smeary and has an unpleasant
odor.
Sausage offers n wide field for adul-
teration of the most dangerous kind,
and in the pamphlets which vegeta-
rians send broadcast over the land from
time to time they give prominence to
an anecdote which is as terse rs it is il
Illustrative of the esteem in which they
hold the sausage. "A man saved the
lifo of n butcher by cndangcring his
own. The poor butcher, overcome with
gratitude, cried out in moment of self
forgetfulness. Never i'll your life again,
my friend, eat sausage. -
The authorizations in this line are
manifold. To produce tho fresh red
color, so alluring in sausage, fuchsinc is
mixed with the ingredients instead OF
blood. 1t is very common practice
to put flour i'll sausage, and while lit
tie of it is harmless, it nevertheless
leads to early fermentation of the AZ
ticle in question. The buyer. however
is very much imposed upon when flour
is added i'll large quantities, for it en-
ables the sausage makers to add from
GO TO 20 per cent of water, which is
paid for at the ratio of meat. France
has lately put stop to this fraud by
limiting the addition of flour to 3 per
cent.
Fish are adulterated in the same way
by rubbing their gills with anilinc,
n Inl, tl,a -
freshness. The aniline is easily washed
off and the fraud detected. In fresh
fish the eyes are full and protrudng.
while III old fish they are Opaque, dull
and sunken. The best way to recog-
niZe an old fish is to watch the gills.
which emit an odor of decay if the fish
is too old for use.
Crawfish or crabs should always be
bought alive. Crabs that are sold al
ready cooked have usually been boiled
after they were dead, and soon decay.
generating very dangerous poison a
crawfish that has been boiled alive will
show "A curled and twisted tail, while,
on the other hand, one that was cooked
after death has the tail perfectly
straight
The best way to tell butter from ole
omargarlne is to put a piece of it on hot
potato which has been boiled in the
jacket and freshly peeled. The taste of
butter is more pronounced when eaten
i'll this WAY than any other, and the
fraud is detected. 1t is also the safest
way to discover the age of dairy or
creamery butter.
Lard is frequently adultcrated with
water to increase its weight, and mixed
bind the water to the fat This NAV
be discovered by carefully melting the
lard and setting it aside in lrkcwarm
place. Tho fat not only separates from
the water, but collects 1T the bottom
of the dish with all the other foreign
ingredients
To tell good eggs from bad ones it is
only necessary to put them III dish
filled with water containing from ) to
10 per cent of salt. Fresh eggs drop to
the bottom, old ones swim on the sur
face, and those of medium quality sink
half way down.
All spices suffer more or less adultcr-
alton, but most of all those which are
sold in a pulvcrized state. Ground pep
per is mixed with paprica, millct,
bread, powdered olives, almond meal,
dust, sand, gypsum, sawdust, spar, and
almost the same ingredients are used
for the adulteration of cinnamon. Pull
verified ginger fares no better ard is
mixed with potato flour, wheat and
cayenne pepper, while the sweet scent
ed aniSo seed comes in for 81 share of
earth, sand and little brown and black