DR. CHASE'S RECIPES

MERCHANTS' AND GROCERS' DEPARTMENT.

VINEGAR.-Merchants and grocers who retail vinegar should always have it made under their own eye, if possible, from the fact that so many unprincipled men enter into its manufacture, as it affords such a large profit. And I would further remark, that there is hardly any article or domestic use, upon which the mass of the people have as little correct information as upon the subject of making vinegar. I shall be brief in my remarks upon the different points of the subject, yet I shall give all the knowledge necessary, that families, or those wishing to manufacture, may be able to have the best article, and at moderate figures. Remember this fact—that vinegar must have air as well as warmth, and especially is this necessary if you desire to make it in a short space of time. And if at any time it seems to be "Dying," as is usually called, add molasses, sugar, alcohol, or cider-whichever article you are making from, or prefer-for vinegar is an industrious fellow; he will either work or die, and when he begins to die you may know he has worked up all the material in his shop, and wants more. Remember this in all vinegars, and they will never die, if they have air. First, then, upon a small scale, for family use:

To Make in Three Weeks.-Molasses, 1 qt.; yeast, 1 pt.; warm rain water, 3 gals. Put all into a jug or keg, and tie a piece of gauze over the bung to keep out flies and let in air. In hot weather set it in the sun; in cold weather set it by the stove or in the chimney-corner, and in three weeks you will have good vinegar.

When this is getting low, pour out some for use, and fill up the jug in the proportion as at first, and you will never have trouble for want of good vinegar.

2. A correspondent of the Dollar Newspaper says: "The cheapest mode of making good vinegar is to mix 5 qts. of warm rain water with two qts. of Orleans molasses, and 4 qts of yeast. In a few weeks you will have the best vinegar you ever tasted." He might well say "The best vinegar you ever tasted," for it would have double the necessary

strength, and three or four times the strength of much that is sold; yet this strength would cost less to make, than to buy by the quart.

3. In Barrels, Without Trouble.-Merchants and grocers, who retail vinegar, can always keep a good supply on hand by having about two or three barrels out of which to sell, by filling the first one they sell out, before quite empty, with

Molasses, 1 gal.; soft water 11 gals.

Keeping this proportion to fill the barrel; the vinegar, and mother which is left in the barrel, makes it work much quicker than if put into empty barrels; so pass around to the next barrel as it is nearly out, having three barrels, and unless you sell more than a barrel a week, you need never be out of vinegar. Some recommend to use alum, cream-of-tartar, etc., in vinegar, but I say never. It is always advisable to have a hole in the top of the barrel, if standing on end; if on the side, the bung out and a gauze over it, to keep out flies and let air in.

4. From Sugar, Drippings from Sugar Hogsheads, etc.Dealers who retail molasses, often have from five to fifty pounds of sugar left in the barrel after selling out the molasses. Each pound of this, or other sugar, dissolved in two gallons of soft water, makes that amount of good vinegar by either of the above plans. Rinsings of molasses barrels or drippings of sugar hogsheads, brought to this degree of sweetness, is as good for vinegar as any other material. Small beer, lager beer, ale, etc., which have become sour, make good vinegar by reducing with water; small beer will need but little water; lager beer will need as much water as beer, or a little more; and ale, twice as much water as ale; they will all need yeast, a quart or two to each barrel, unless put into barrels which have some vinegar in them, and it will do no harm, but quicken the process in all cases, if there is vinegar in the barrel.

5. From Acetic Acid and Molasses.-Acetic acid, 4 lbs.; molasses, 1 gal,; put them into a 40 gallon cask, and fill it up with rain water; shake it up and let stand from one to three weeks, and the result is good vinegar.

If this does not make it as sharp as you like, add a little more molasses. But some will object to this because an acid is used; let me say to such, that acetic acid is concentrated vinegar. Take one lb. or one pt., or any other quantity of this acid, and add seven times as much soft water, and you have just as good vinegar as can be made from cider and that instantaneously.

6. From Apple Cider.-As there are those who will not have any but cider vinegar, and have plenty of cider out of which to make it, I will give you the best plan of proceeding, for manufacturers:

Have a room where it will not freeze; place on end as many barrels or large casks, without heads, to hold as much as you wish to

make; fill these one-third full of soft water, and the other two-thirds with apple cider; yeast, 2 qts. to each cask.

In a few weeks you will have good vinegar; without the yeast it would be all the season in becoming good. Then fill up into barrels for sale, leaving a little, say one-eighth, in the open barrels, and fill them up with water and cider as before, and it will become good much quicker than before. If the water is objected to, use the cider without it, but pure cider makes vinegar too strong for any one to use, and requires much longer time in making. These barrels may have boards over them to keep out flies and dirt. If the retailer can give it his attention, by having a barrel of good cider vinegar to sell out of, he can always keep it up, if, when he draws out two or three gallons of the vinegar, he will go to his cider, kept for the purpose, and replace the vinegar with the cider; or, if making with molasses and water or any other article, fill up with the same; but take notice, if you forget or neglect, and draw your vinegar nearly all out before you fill in, it does not keep to the point of sharpness desired, unless you have two or three barrels as mentioned in recipe No. 3.

Persons who have old sour cider on hand can in this way, or as mentioned in No. 6, have good vinegar from it immediately, as it comes around into vinegar much quicker than new cider.

7. In Three Days Without Drugs.-The philosophy of making vinegar quickly, is this: The means that will expose the largest surface of the vinegar fluid, of a certain temperature, to the air, will convert it into vinegar in the shortest time; and as there is no way by which so great a surface can be exposed as by the shavings process and at the same time control the temperature, that plan has been adopted as explained in the wood-cut on the next page, and in the descriptive note:

DESCRIPTIVE NOTE.-Those wishing to manufacture, to sell at wholesale, will prepare a tub, or square box, and arrange it as shown in the accompanying cut, knowing that the taller and larger the tub, the quicker will the vinegar become good. The air holes are bored through every other, or every third stave, around the whole tub. These holes are to be about one foot or eighteen inches from the bottom; they must also be bored slanting down as you bore inward, otherwise the vinegar would run out and waste as it drips down the side or of the tub. These tubs ought to be from ten to twenty feet high, according to the quantity you desire to run off daily. Now take beech, maple or basswood boards-and they are valuable in the order named-cut them off about eighteen inches in length, and plane thick, heavy shavings from the edges; and if they do not roll up and stay in nice rolls, you must roll and tie them up with small cord; or clean corn cobs will do, but they will only last one season, whilst the shavings will last several years. If cobs are used, they must be put in layers

each layer crossing the other, to prevent their packing too close. Ther wet or soak them thoroughly in water, and fill up the tub or tubs with them, until you are within two or three feet of the top, at which place you will nail a stout hoop around, upon the inside of the tub, which shall support the false top, which has been made and fitted for that purpose, through which false top you will have bored good sized gimlet holes about every two inches all over its whole surface, through each of which holes a small cord, about four or five inches in length, is to be drawn, having a knot tied upon its upper end to keep it in its place, and to prevent the vinegar fluid from working out too fast. The size of these holes, and the size of the cord, must be such as to allow the amount of vinegar being made to run through every twelve hours; or, if time can be given to put it up so often, it may run through every six hours. You will cork all around between the false top and the tub with cotton, which causes the vinegar-fluid, hereafter to be described, to pass through the gimlet holes and drip from the ends of the small cords, evenly, all over the shavings, otherwise, if the false top was not exactly level, the vinegar fluid would all run off at the lowest point, down the side of the tub, and be a very long time in becoming good, whilst if it drips slowly and all over and down through the shavings it soon comes around into good vinegar. The holes

bored for that purpose, in warm weather oxidizes or acetifies the vinegar-fluid, by affording the two essential points of quickly making good vinegar, that is air and heat, without the expense of a fire to warm the fluid, or room in which the vinegar is made. Now bore five ore-inch holes through the false top, one of them through the center, and the other two-thirds of the distance each way, towards the outside