Vinegar

Under the article A creTic Acip we have observed that this acid is employed in three different states, which have been distinguished from each other by peculiar names. When first prepared, it is called vinegar; when purified by distillation, it a umes the name of distilled vinegar, or acetous acid, as it is termed by the chemists; and when concentrated as much as po ible, by peculiar proce es, it is called radical vinegar, or by the chemists acetic acid. Vinegar was known many ages. before the discovery of any other acid, those only excepted which exist ready formed in vegetables, It is mentioned by Moses; and appears, indeed, to have been in common use among the Israeli tes and other eastern nations ata very early period. $1 is a liquor of an agreeable smell, a pleasant and strongly acid taste, and of a hue varying from light red to brown straw colour; and is prepared by fermenting any substance or compound which has already undergone the spirituous fermentation, Vinegar, therefore, may be made immediately from any wine, malt liquor, cyder, .; or from the juice of the grape and other fruits; from infusion of malt, or any saccharine liquid, through the intermedium of vinous fermentation. Both these methods are actually practised with complete succe . ‘To make vinegar out of a liquor containing suitable materials, it is only nece ary, Ist, to allow some acce of air to the ve el in which it is kept; and, 2d, to keep it in a temperature rather higher than that of the atmosphere in this climate, that is to say, about 75° to 80°. It is also almost e ential, where a liquor already fermented is employed, to add a portion of yeast, or any ‘other ferment; for though any fermented liquor, if kept in a moderate temperature in an open ve el, will spontaneously run sour, or becume changed to vinegar; this change is too gradual to produce this acid in perfection, and the first acetified portion turns mouldy before the last has become sour: but where the substance employed has not yet undergone fermentation, the whole proce of the vinous and subsequent acetous fermentation will go on uninterruptedly with the same ferment which at first set it in action, which happens, for example, in the making vinegar from malt, or from sugar and water. In this country vinegar Is chiefly made from malt. The following is the usual proce in London: a mash of malt and hot water is made, which, after infusion for an hour and a half, is conveyed into a cooler, a few inches deep, and thence, when sufficiently cooled, into large and deep fermenting tuns, where it is mixed with yeast, and kept in fermentation for four or five days. The liquor (which is now a:strong ale without hops) is then distributed into smaller barrels, set close together in a stoved chamber, and a moderate heat is kept up for about six weeks; during which the fermentation goes on equally and uniformly till the whole is soured. This is then emptied into common barrels, which are set in rows (often of many hundreds) in a field in the open air, the bung-hole being just covered with a tile, to keep off the wet, but to allow a free admi ion of air, Here the liquor remains for four or five months, according to the heat of the weather, a gentle fermentation being kept up till it becomes perfect vinegar. his is finished in the following way: large tuns are employed, with a false bottom, on which is put a quantity of the refuse of raisins, or other fruit, left by the makers of raisin and other homemade wines, called technically rape. These rape-tuns are worked by pairs; one of them is quite filled with the vinegar from the barrels, and the other only three-quarters full, so that the fermentation ts excited more easily in the. latter than the former; and every day a portion of the vinegar is laded: from one to the other, till the whole is completely finished, and fit for sale. Vinegar, as well as fruit-wines, is often made in small quantity for domestic uses, and the proce is by no means difficult. “The materials may be either brown sugar and water alone, or sugar with raisins, currants, and especially ripe gooseberries. These should be mixed in the proportions which would give a strong wine, put into a small barrel, which it should fill about three-fourths, and the bung-hole very loosely stopped. Some yeast, or which is better, a toast sopped in yeast, should be put in, and the barrel set in the sun in summer, or a little way from a fire in winter, and the fermentation will soon begin. This should be kept up constant, but moderate, till the taste and smell indigate that the vinegar is complete. It should then be poured off clear, and bottled carefully, and it will keep much better if it be boiled fora minute, cooled, and strained, before bottling. 106