The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1895-06-27
DADULTERATION
SOME FLAGRANT CASES
NAY BE DETECTED.
ications OF Healthy Meat-Sausage
~ Fish Adulteration-To Tell
'od Butter. Lard and Eggs z,
Fraud in Spices.
Y tDULTERATIyG articles q


al ancestors. During the mid.
T. yes the cunning baker mixed his
with lime, sand and gypsum, and
.scovery was thrown into prison
and compelled TO eat the product
is entire bakery, which cured him
he fraudulent habit.
The most important article of food
every household is the meat. The
neat which comes from healthy ami.
mails is distinguished by pleasant
odor and fresh color, from delicate
pink TO deep carmine, according 10
the animal from which it comes. 1t
uust be elastic TO the touch. The
ent which is caused by pressing n
finger on 1t must disappear when the
PRO sure is removed. The fatty sub
stahce of the meat is n good indicator
It's quality. In healthy animals the
is yellow and elastic and has
asant odor. The fat in the meat
m sick animals is pale, gray and
cary and has an unpleasant odor.
ausage offers "a wide field for adul-
ltion of the most dangerous kind,
in the pamphlets which vegetar-
send BROADCAST over the land from
le to time they give prominence 10
anecdote which is M terse as it is
istrative of the esteem in which
~ hold the sausage. "a man saved
life of butcher by cndangering
own. The poor butcher, overcome
th gratitude, cried ont in n moment
self-forgetfulness Never in your
Q again, my friend, eat sausage
Tho adulterations in this line are
unfold. To produce the fresh red
lor, so alluring in sausage, fuchsine
mixed with the Ingredients instead
blood. II is a very common prac-
ce to put flour in sausage, and, while
little of it is harmless, il neverthe-
'ss leads TO early fermentation of the
rticle in question. The buyer. how
'er, is very much imposed upon when
our Is added in large quantities, for
enables the sausage makers to add
rom sixty to seventy per cent. of
Tater, which is paid for at the rate of
leat. France has lately put stop to
his fraud by limiting the addition of
our to three per cent.
Fish are adulterated in the same way
~ rubbing their gills with aniline,
Shich gives them the appearance of
freshness. The aniline iseasily washed
)ff and the fraud detected. In fresh
al the cyes nj fall and ofrctrr3'-w
Shile in old fish they are Opaque, dun
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 he
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 curious and twisted tail.
while, on the other hand, one that was
cooked after death has the tail per
fectly straight.
> The best way t9 tell butter from
oleomargarine is to put piece of it on
q hot potato which has been boiled in
the jacket and freshly peeled. The
taste of butter is more pronounced
when eaten in 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.
y Lard Is frequently adulterated with
water to increase its weight, and
mixed with coru-starch, salt, chalk,
etc, to bind the water to the fat
This may be discovered by carefully
melting the lard aud setting il aside
IN "a lukewarm place. The fat not
only separates from the water, but
collects at the bottom of the dish with
oil the other foreign ingredients.
10 tell good eggs from bad ones it
IL only necessary To put them in
dish filled with water containing from
five 10 ten per cent. of salt. Fresh
eggs drop to the bottom, old ones
swim on the surface, and those of
quality sink half way down.
', All spices suffer more or less alul-
teration, but most of all those which
are sold IN pulverized state. Ground
pepper is mixed with paprica, millet,
bread, powdered olives, almond meal,
dust, sand, gypsum, sawdust, spar,
and almost the same ingredients are
used for the adulteration of cinnamon.
Pulverized ginger fares no better, and
Is mixed with potato flour, wheat and
cayenne pepper, while the sweet-scent-
ed anise seed comes in for share of
earth, sand and little brown and black
stones. Housekeepers will always be
moro or less cheated in buying pow
dered spices, which should he bought
IN their natural state and ground Mt
home. The vanilla bean, before the
invention OF the artificial vanilline,
was deprived of its natural aroma and
basted with balm of Peru.
Coffee is adulterated in all forms
and in every possible way. Machines
have been invented and large factor
les erected, where artificial coffee
beans are made from acorn flour and
gum arabic, and these are mixed with
the real coffee; and even the real
beans are covered with poisonous
chemicals if they have been damaged