Grocers' Goods / A Family Guide to the Purchase of Flour, Sugar, Tea, Coffee, Spices, Canned Goods, Cigars, Wines, and All Other Articles Usually Found in American Grocery Stores

Sago is the pith of an Indian palm steeped in water until it becomes a paste, then formed into little balls by rubbing it through a perforated plate. The best is the whitest. Tapioca is the pith of the Manihot tree, washed like sago, but granulated differently. Both are nutritious and easily digested, and are made into puddings, often with fruit, and eaten with milk or sauce.

Bread.

One hundred pounds of good, fine, wheaten flour will take up forty-five pounds of water, and yield one hundred and forty-five pounds of bread. The proper and legal weight of bread is while it is hot. A four pound loaf loses in twenty-four hours one and one-quarter ounces; in forty-eight hours five ounces; in seventy hours nine ounces. The quantity of water which flour will absorb depends largely on the proportion and quality of the gluten. The best flours absorb most, and will take up more in dry than in wet seasons; hence a dry season is good for the baker. Thorough kneading increases the absorption of water, and should be continued until none of the dough will stick to the hand.

Feed for Stock.

Among the articles largely used as food for animals are the refuse products of the various grains made in preparing them for human consumption; as, for instance, the refuse left in the pearling of barley, or in making hominy and samp; dried Barley Sprouts from malt, low grade flour; Middlings, which are a mixture of bran and flour; Bran, etc. Besides these, Oats, white, black and mixed, and vast quantities of Southern and Western Corn are also used for stock, ground into coarse meal.

Bread Raising Materials.

Fermentation, says Liebig, is not only the simplest and best, but likewise the most economical way of making light and porous bread.

Yeast is a true fungous plant, which has the power of establishing fermentation and changing starch into sugar, and the escaping gas makes the loaf light and spongy. Hops prevent too great fermentation and impart an agreeable flavor. Brewers’ Yeast is largely used when obtainable, and there are many domestic modes of preparing yeast from potatoes, flour, etc.

Dried Yeast.—But as all these fresh yeasts are liable to spoil and affect the bread unpleasantly, there is an extensive demand for a yeast which shall possess the same properties and which may be kept a long time. Hence, the various brands of yeast cakes sold by the grocer. They are made usually by adding corn meal to the yeast and carefully drying the cakes in the sun. It is singular that a fall or sudden jar may injure yeast cakes and deprive them largely of their qualities.

Cream of tartar, BI-CARBONATE OF SODA, BI-CARBONATE OF POTASH (SALERATUS), are all used in bread making, and are to be had in all sorts of packages of the grocer. Cream of tartar is tartrate of potash, and is made from the argols found incrusted upon the inside of wine barrels. It should be white, and not yellowish in tint. The effect of these chemicals in raising bread is due chiefly to the liberation of the carbonic acid gas they contain when mixed with water, incorporated with the dough and put in the oven, and the great requisite is that they should be pure and unadulterated.

Baking Powders are much used for making light and palatable domestic biscuits, etc. They are convenient, and generally lessen the quantity of shortening required. They are made chiefly of tartaric acid and bi-carbonate of soda, and should be neutral to the taste, and without effervescence if either an acid or alkali is added. One popular variety, called “Phosphatic Baking Powder,” consists of acid phosphate of lime instead of cream of tartar, with soda.

Biscuits, Crackers, etc.

The word biscuit means twice baked, and is a survival from the ancient mode of cooking the cakes which is now no longer in use. Plain biscuits are said to be more nutritious than bread in the proportion of five to three, and are most digestible when light and well browned in baking, so as to turn much of the starch into dextrine. Sea biscuit or ship bread is made simply of flour and water baked at a high heat. In the large cracker bakeries the dough is mixed, rolled and cut by machinery and the cakes travel on through patent ovens until baked, when they drop out into baskets. Those made by hand are, however, considered best.

The variety of biscuits and crackers in market is utterly bewildering. These are among the standards: Boston, SODA, BUTTER, OYSTER, SUGAR, FRUIT, MILK, ENGLISH ALBERT, WATER, CREAM, GINGER, LEMON, OATMEAL, CARAWAY, VANILLA, and dozens more kinds of biscuits, crackers and wafers at various prices; besides GINGER and LEMON SNAPS and JUMBLES, and even DOG BISCUIT. There is also CRACKER DUST, for frying oysters, fish, etc. Some of the above come in handsome tin packages.

This necessity of modern life ranks as one of the most important articles among the grocers’ goods. Two hundred years ago it was sold chiefly by the apothecaries, but is now consumed in all parts of the world to the extent of many millions of tons annually. Sugars have been divided into four kinds, viz.: cane sugar, found in stems; grape sugar, found in fruits; manna sugar, found in leaves; and milk or animal sugar.

Grape sugar or glucose.—The sweetness of ripe fruits is due to the starch which they contain, passing, under the ripening influence of nature, into grape sugar. Substances may consist of the same elements, but different proportions may greatly vary their properties. For instance, starch and sugar consist merely of carbon and water. Grape sugar contains more water than starch, and cane sugar more than grape sugar.

Now, long boiling of starch in pure water produces little change upon it; but it was found that if a little sulphuric acid is added, the starch will take up more water and become entirely converted into grape sugar. And this is substantially the way in which commercial glucose is made. The acid is neutralized by lime, and the liquor boiled down into solid grape sugar or syrup.

Cane Sugars are sweeter than grape sugars in the proportion of five to three; hence, three pounds of cane sugar are worth five pounds of grape or starch sugar for sweetening purposes. This is the reason why grape sugar is used to adulterate cane sugar, and it is the only adulterant used at present to any extent.

One pound of water will dissolve three pounds of cane, but only one pound of grape sugar. The latter has a gummy taste on the tongue and dissolves slowly. A small grained sugar may carry some glucose and perhaps escape detection, but the crystals of a large grained sugar will always be brilliant in contrast with its contaminating ingredients, and thus proclaim the fraud. In other words, inferior sugars have a dull look, while good sugars are bright. Glucose sugars melt at one hundred and five degrees, C., while cane sugars melt only when heated to one hundred and thirty-seven degrees, C. Raw sugars are no longer used. They should be refined to free them from the repulsive sugar mite and other impurities. The best sugar is always the most economical.

The Best Grades of Family Sugar are the cut loaf, cubes and crushed. Next in market value, in the order in which they stand, are powdered, granulated, A sugars, C sugars, white, yellow, extra golden, etc., down to common yellow.

Syrups.—These are the uncrystallized residue in refining brown sugars. They are diluted, filtered through animal charcoal, and concentrated. The lighter the color the higher the price. The better qualities are called “Rock Candy Drips,” “Golden Drips,” etc.

Molasses.—The choicest are the New Orleans Fancy, Choice, Prime. Good, etc., down through the same grades of Porto Rico, to the Cuba Muscovado. The quality of molasses has deteriorated with improvements in the manufacture of sugar on plantations, and it is sometimes sold mixed with glucose.

Honey.—Consists of eighty parts in a hundred of pure grape sugar with an acid and aromatic principle. Spring honey is better than that made in autumn, and that from clover or other fragrant flowers is better than that of buckwheat.

Sugar Candies.

Whatever dangers may have lurked in confectionery in times past, parents may now be assured that they can gratify the natural and healthy appetite of their children for sweets, without fear of poisonous colorings or harmful adulterants.

The “National Confectioners’ Association,” (an organization formed by a large proportion of the leading manufacturing confectioners of the United States,) “is pledged by its constitution and by-laws to prosecute all parties using poisonous colorings, terra-alba, or other mineral substances in the manufacture of confectionery.” They invite fathers and others interested to report any supposed case of injury from eating poisoned candy, and “offer a reward of one hundred dollars for evidence that will enable them to convict the offender.” It is the opinion of the editor of the Weekly Confectioner, and of many prominent manufacturing confectioners in New York, as expressed to us, that in all the land there is now no product of domestic manufacture and consumption which is more free from poisonous colorings and injurious adulterants than confectionery.

But more than this: in 1886 this association passed an amendment to its constitution forbidding any member, under penalty of expulsion, to buy or sell “any candy adulterated with flour, corn meal, starch, or cerealine, except such amount of starch as is necessary to the manufacture of gum goods and fig paste work.” Many confectioners, however, think this action was ill advised.

Making Candy, etc.

Glucose or grape sugar now enters largely into the manufacture of many kinds of confectionery, and harmless vegetable colors are used. Manipulation breaks up the crystals of sugar and thereby renders it whiter, and the difference in the price of candies is now largely due to the amount of manipulation it receives. Few have an idea of the vast quantities of confectionery manufactured. It amounts to many hundred tons daily; much of it is made almost entirely by machinery, and the business is divided. For instance, one firm makes only lozenges, another gum drops, caramels or licorice, marshmellow, etc. Jobbers supply retailers.

If synthetic or chemically prepared flavoring extracts are used, they are such only as are guaranteed harmless.

French imported “Bon Bons” are still superior to the domestic, and so are their candied violets; but rose leaves iced here are equal to the imported. Licorice candies are having an increased demand yearly. Cocoanut candy contains usually a large admixture of the harmless cerealine. Space will not permit more than a reference to the great variety of confections in market. Among them are stick and lump candies in scallops and patties, with mottoes, etc., assorted and in various colors; mixed candies in various forms and flavors, gum drops, lozenges, white, red and assorted; rock candies, etc.

TEA.

This staple necessity of modern life is now consumed by more than five hundred millions of people, and its use appears to grow with the growth of civilization. There is but one species of the tea plant and its varieties are due to differences of soil and climate. China alone produces annually nearly a million and a half tons of tea; to say nothing of the teas of Japan, Corea, Assam, and Java.

Effects of Tea.

Tea exhilarates without intoxicating; rouses the mind to increased activity without reaction, while at the same time it soothes the body, dispels headache, and counteracts the effects of fermented liquors and narcotics. It lessens also the waste of the tissues under the labors of life.

As an English authority says: “When the time has arrived to the old and infirm, that the stomach can no longer digest enough of the ordinary elements of food to keep up the waste of the system, and the size and weight of the body begins to diminish, tea comes in as a medicine to arrest this loss of tissue.” No wonder then that the aged, the infirm and the poor should take kindly to tea. If supplies of food are scanty it lessens the need for them, while it makes them feel more light and cheerful, and contributes to their enjoyment.

Black and Green Teas.

Either may be prepared at will from the same leaves; the difference lies in the mode of treatment. The earliest leaves are the tenderest and best flavored; later gatherings grow more woody and bitter. Black teas are spread in the air for some time after gathering, then roasted and rolled by hand, again exposed to the air, whereby they undergo a slight degree of fermentation, and finally are dried slowly over charcoal fires. The leaves for green tea are, as soon as gathered, roasted a few minutes in pans over a brisk fire, after which they are carefully rolled and thoroughly dried.

The aroma and commercial value of tea are due to a small quantity, (from 1/4 to 1 per cent.) of a volatile oil which it contains. This oil, as in coffee, is developed by roasting, the fresh picked leaves having neither an astringent, aromatic, nor bitter taste. But the effects of tea are due to its theine and tannin. Theine is present in all kinds of tea, as well as in coffee and cocoa, but it has no flavor. Tannin forms from a fifth to a seventh of the weight of the dried tea leaf, and is the more completely extracted the longer the tea is infused, or “draws.” Its precise effect upon the system is not fully known. Black tea contains less theine, essential oil, and tannin, than green tea.

The Chinese pour hot water upon their tea, and drink it clear, and in Russia a squeeze of lemon takes the place of our cream. The Chinese sometimes flavor their fine teas with the cowslip colored blossoms of the sweet-scented olive and other odoriferous plants; and they also adulterate them with foreign or exhausted tea leaves, or with tea dust, called “Lie tea.” But good authorities declare that fair grades of tea are not now much or necessarily adulterated, and that the old idea that green teas are colored or faced with copper is erroneous; at least experts have not been able to detect even traces of it.

Tea Made to Order.

There are tea coloring and facing establishments in this country which use for the purpose substances very similar to those used by the Chinese, and they have become so expert of late years that they can turn a black tea into a green (or vice versa) at short notice.

Tea buyers judge quality by the aroma, flavor, and the color and strength of the infusion. They detect vegetable adulterations by the shape and size of the leaf when unrolled, and sometimes burn the leaves and weigh the residue of ash.

Gunpowder, Hyson, and Imperial.

Some of the most experienced tea dealers in New York declare that there is really no essential difference in the quality of the “Firsts” or choicest grades of any “Chop” of either Gunpowder, Hyson, or Imperial, the only difference being in the form or fineness of granulation. But the popular preference in green tea is for Gunpowder, which is believed to consist of the first leaves or leaf buds of the plant. It is graded from “common” or “fair” up to “choicest.”

Varieties of Tea.

Hyson is a widely used green tea. The name is derived from He-chun, a noted Chinese tea grower. Young Hyson is said to be made from the earlier leaves; Imperials and Hysons from later gatherings. Hyson skin is the light inferior leaves winnowed out. Twankay is the poorest of the green, as Bohea is of the black teas. Pekoe is the best of black teas, but is little used, except to give fragrance to mixtures. “Capers” is used similarly to flavor green teas. Congou (made with care) and Souchong are good black teas, and are the so-called “English Breakfast Teas.” Moyune teas are considered as among the best and healthiest of green teas, while Pingsuys are inferior. Cheap teas are most adulterated. Fine teas are not only better in flavor, but are stronger and go further.

Oolong teas have “the call” in popularity with the Americans just now and they are recommended in sickness by the best physicians. There are three kinds, the Formosa, Foo Chow, and Amoy. The first two are the best. An article in the London Daily News, of February 18, 1888, avers that the Chinese are growing neglectful in cultivating, firing, and fermenting their teas, and that Japan is stealing away the green tea trade of China, as India and Ceylon are taking that in black tea.

A. & A. Low, of New York, imported the first cargo of Japan tea about twenty years ago, and since then its consumption has constantly increased. The natural leaf is yellowish brown, and the first Japan teas brought here were of that color. But the tint has changed. The “uncolored” Japan tea is in fact now all colored with some substance like the Chinese green teas, but not injuriously. The “Basket fired” is the nearest to the uncolored leaf. The “Sun-dried” is very popular here, and is but slightly colored. Expert tea tasters declare that Japan teas are more exciting to the nerves than those from China.

Blended Teas.

New crop teas are the best. Japan teas come in June, and Chinese later, say in July and August. Many prefer a mixture of green and black tea for family use, and retail dealers often have the knack of so blending the two that the excellence of each is enhanced. Such a combination has less effect upon the nerves, and is less expensive than good green tea, while it may be more delightful in flavor than either black or green tea alone.

COFFEE.

Coffee has been aptly called the “Beverage of Intelligence.” It quickens the functions of the brain, arouses all the intellectual faculties, stimulates and gives clearness to thought and increases the powers of judgment. It exhilarates the nervous system, counteracts the stupor caused by fatigue, by disease, or by opium, allays hunger, retards the waste of the tissues, fortifies the powers of endurance, and to a certain extent gives to the weary and exhausted increased strength and vigor, and a feeling of comfort and repose.

Both tea and coffee are more and more used in proportion to the intellectual development of modern times. But coffee does not excite the nervous system as greatly as tea and there is less reaction after it.

Coffee Better than Alcohol.

Coffee tends to lessen the desire for alcoholic drinks, and possesses some of their properties without their bad effects. Alcohol is a false and dangerous friend. Its free use enfeebles the vital organs, reduces the power of resistance, degrades the mind and body and leads on to poverty, disease, and death. Coffee produces the beneficial effects of moderate doses of alcohol, without its injurious effects. It does not, like alcohol, destroy the nerves, or invite immoderation, and even when used to excess is incapable of doing serious injury.

The most temperate countries are those which consume most coffee, and in the light of all these facts it would appear that efforts to extend and increase the use of coffee tend to check or diminish alcoholism.

Coffee Growth and Production.

Coffee plants are raised from the seed, are set out in 12 months, 450 plants to the acre, begin to bear in 4 years, mature in 7 years, and continue for 40 years. The flowers are white and fragrant; the fruit, which grows in clusters, resembles a red cherry and contains two seeds, which are the coffee of commerce.

The world’s total annual production of coffee is about 666,000 tons, of which Brazil furnishes 360,000 tons. The entire population of the United States averages to consume, per capita 7-42/100 lbs. of coffee yearly, more than three-quarters of which comes from Brazil.

Raw Coffee, unlike tea, improves in quality with age, while it shrinks in weight, and inferior coffees may in time equal the choicest varieties. The aroma is in the direct ratio of its drying by keeping. Inferior coffees are uneven, often unclean. The large, uniform, dense, heavy grains are preferred, as showing complete maturity and careful selection. The color varies from all shades of yellow to tints of brown, green, and bluish green. There are large establishments in one or more eastern cities, which assort, color, and polish raw coffees. Much Brazilian coffee is assorted and sold for Mocha, Java, etc. Real Mocha is small, round, and dark yellow; Java and East Indian is larger and of a paler yellow. Ceylon, Brazilian and West Indian have naturally a bluish green or greenish grey tint.

Roasting is necessary to develop the aroma and goodness of coffee. This delicate operation changes its chemical composition and develops the caffeine and volatile oil. If roasted too little the coffee retains a raw taste; if too much, a part is changed to charcoal and much aroma lost. The outside may be burned and the inside left raw, or some grains may be half raw and others burned. Coffee loses in weight from 15 to 20 and even 25 per cent., and gains in bulk from 30 to 60 per cent., according as it is roasted to a reddish, chestnut, or dark brown. The best roasting is that which reduces the weight about sixteen per cent., or to a light chestnut brown.

Coffee and Tea Compared.

Tea yields, weight for weight, twice as much caffeine (or theine) as coffee; but as we use more in weight of the latter, a cup of coffee contains about as much caffeine as a cup of tea. The composition of roasted coffee and the tea leaf are given as follows, although the proportions are variable:

Modes of Making Coffee.

One pound of the properly roasted bean or berry should make 55 or 60 cups of good coffee. Coffee may be made too bitter, but it is impossible to make it too fragrant. Coffee is much the best when freshly ground. The French and many Americans merely steep or infuse their coffee at a temperature just below the boiling point, claiming that boiling dissipates the aroma; others bring it only to a boil; while others still, hold that boiling it a little is more economical, as giving an increased quantity of the soluble, exhilarating and bitter principles. Soft water is best for coffee, and coffee is better cold than warmed over, as it then loses its fragrance.

Rye, beans, peas, acorns, carrots, turnips, dandelion root, burned bread, and many similar substances have at times been used as substitutes or adulterants for coffee. But as none of them contain caffeine or the volatile aromatic oil, they cannot serve the same physiological principle. Ground coffee is extensively adulterated, and mainly with the much cheaper

Chicory or Wild Endive.

Tests for Adulterations.

If ground coffee cakes in the paper, or when pinched by the fingers, or if, when a little is put into water, a part sinks while the rest swims, and the water becomes immediately discolored, the coffee is probably adulterated. The more caking and discoloration, the more chicory and the less value.

There are numerous brands of ground coffee on the market, and some of them are very popular and satisfactory. There are also various kinds of “Extracts” and “Essences” of coffee, and even humble chicory may sometimes be seen without disguise and nicely put up in yellow papers.

Cocoa and Chocolate.

The theobroma tree grows in Central and South America. The seeds of its fruit, which are about the size of almonds, are gently roasted, deprived of their husks and ground to a paste. This is Cocoa. If this paste be mixed with sugar and flavored with vanilla, bitter almonds, etc., it forms the well known, delicious, and nourishing Chocolate, which may either be eaten as a confection or drank as a beverage. The husk, which forms about 10 per cent. of the weight of the bean, is called “Shells,” and used by invalids and others for making a light and delicate infusion or tea.

The aroma of cocoa is due to an essential oil which is developed, as with tea and coffee, by roasting. Its exhilarating principle, theobromine, resembles theine. It contains a large percentage of fat, is very rich and nutritious, and may be said to unite in itself the inspiring properties of tea with the strength-giving qualities of milk.

Starch, as well as sugar, is sometimes added to cocoa and chocolate by the manufacturers, and the practice is believed to be justified, owing to their richness in oil and as better fitting them for digestion. Cocoa is, however, also prepared free from starch and deprived of a portion of its oil. There are many preparations of chocolate and cocoa in market, and they embrace all grades of purity, sweetness and price.

Milk, Etc.

Milk is sophisticated by robbing it of its cream, or by adding to it “The milk of the cow with the iron tail,” and by coloring it. Cream contains about 40 per cent. of fat and 55 per cent. of water; SKIMMED MILK is water, with sugar and caseine. Whey is merely a solution of milk sugar with a little albumen. Milk is best and most plentiful in spring, and richer but less abundant in dry seasons. The last milk drawn from the cow contains most cream. Koumiss, the use of which is rapidly increasing, is well skimmed milk, treated with a lactic ferment for 30 or 40 hours. It is very easy of digestion. Condensed milk is ordinary milk evaporated so that three pints are reduced to one. It soon spoils unless the air is excluded. Preserved milk in cans contains about one-third its weight of sugar.

Butter.

Good, fresh butter, contains 84 to 88 parts of milk fat, 10 or 12 parts of moisture, and a little milk sugar, caseine and salt. inferior butter may contain as much as 33 per cent. of water, or buttermilk, and salt. The more buttermilk left in, the sooner the butter grows rancid, while over-working tends to make it soft and oily. The melting of butter changes its physical properties, and long exposure to the air injures the best butter.

Good butter is solid and of a grained texture, has a fine orange yellow color and a pleasant aroma. It may comfort the curious to know that its odor is due to a very little butyric acid, combined with oxide of lipyle. To test the quantity of moisture, put a little of the butter in a bottle, heat gently, and leave near the fire for half an hour, when the butter will rise, leaving the water and salt at the bottom. Two-thirds of all the butter made is colored.

Classification of Butter.

The New York Mercantile Exchange classification, which is standard, is as follows: Eastern Creamery, Sweet Cream Creamery, Dairy Butter, Western Creamery, Imitation Creamery, and Dairy, also “Ladle” and “Grease Butter.”

Creamery Butter is the best. It is such as is made from the cream obtained by setting the milk at the creamery, or by the system known as “Cream gathering,” by which the farmer delivers his cream to the creamery to be churned or made into butter. Butter made under the former system, or from the milk, is better than that made from the gathered cream. Sweet Cream Creamery is made from unfermented cream.

Dairy Butter is that which is made, salted, and packed by the dairyman or farmer. Though often really excellent, it is less uniform in quality, and therefore less reliable.

Ladle Butter.—This is butter of all seasons, ages, and qualities, collected by the dealer, in rolls, lumps, or packages, from the farm houses, salted, or unsalted, as the case may be, and by him reworked, resalted, colored, and packed.

Artificial Butter.

About 20 years ago a French chemist tried to imitate the process which takes place when cows are underfed, and when, therefore, the butter they yield is supplied from their own fat. His aim was to make a substitute for butter for the poor, etc., which should be healthful, agreeable and cheap, and which should keep a long time without becoming rancid. The man’s name was Mege-Mouries, and he discovered Oleomargarine. This product has been, and is still extensively manufactured in the United States, and is pronounced by some of the most eminent and scientific men to be wholesome, nutritious and palatable.

Oleomargarine is made from the fat of slaughtered cattle. This is melted at a temperature of 150 deg. F., and the stearine extracted. The “Oleo oil” which is left is now churned with cream or milk, colored and salted.

Butterine is made from oleo oil, neutral lard, and some butter. These ingredients are churned with milk or cream, colored, salted and packed in tubs. Refined cotton seed oil is also frequently used in the manufacture of both products.

Oleomargarine Laws.

In 1886 Congress passed the “Oleomargarine Bill,” defining butter to be an article made solely from milk and cream. It imposes a tax of two cents per pound upon oleomargarine and similar butter substitutes, compels their sale in certain sized packages, plainly marked or branded with the name of their contents, and requires manufacturers and dealers to take out special licenses, all under heavy penalties. Some of the State laws, restricting the sale of oleomargarine, are still more stringent, and its consumption has diminished, although it is still used in some sections and extensively exported.

Cheese.

No article of food appears to be more affected than cheese by slight variations of the materials from which it is made, or by such apparently trifling differences in the methods of manufacture. Both full and skimmed milk are used; the former yielding, of course, the best product. The latter cheese is little used in this country. An English writer says that if milk is skimmed for several days, “it yields a cheese so hard that pigs grunt at it, dogs bark at it, but neither dare bite it.” People’s tastes vary greatly in the flavor of cheese, and while some prefer the natural tint, others buy that which is colored. Color adds neither richness nor flavor, and is gradually falling into disuse.

Cheese as a Staple Food.

Some nations (as Great Britain, etc.,) consume cheese largely as a staple food, while others use it more sparingly, and mainly as a condiment or relish. Bread and cheese consort better with ale than with whiskey and this country is not greatly given to cheese as a staple food, although its consumption is increasing here, owing to recent improvements in the modes of manufacture and in its quality. Two-thirds of our total product now goes to Europe.

Analysis of Full and Skim Milk Cheese.

The composition of cheese is given as follows:

Good and Poor Cheese.

Cheese dries fast and shrinks in weight; hence the grocer who sells it in small quantities is compelled to charge a fair margin or advance upon its cost to save himself from loss. The ordinary weight of American cheeses is about 60 lbs., but smaller ones are growing in favor, and many are now made weighing from 35 to 40 lbs. A grocer who has a good class of custom soon realizes that our poor cheese takes the place of several good ones, and it is his aim to secure a good and popular quality and stick to it.

Facts About Cheese.

The best cheese is made from the rich June grasses, the poorest in the heats of summer. June cheese is safest to keep, as the curds are then scalded higher, to ensure that they will sustain the coming warm weather. Cheese may be made for immediate use—and such will grow sharp if long kept—or it may be so made as to keep a year or more with constant improvement or ripening. It requires about ten pounds of milk to make one pound of cheese.

“Filled” Cheese is made by substituting lard in place of the cream of the milk. Ten pounds of such cheese contains about 1 pound of lard. This product is largely made in some sections, and is chiefly sold in the South or exported.

Classification of Cheese.

Cheese made in New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin has the first “Call” in the New York Mercantile Exchange. “Fancy” must be full cream, perfect in flavor, close made, well cured, of uniform color and perfect surface. “Fine” is the next grade below—must be also full cream, clean flavor, etc. “Known Marks” or Factory Cheese may not be full cream. “Western Cheese” “Shall include those of all States not mentioned above and shall be classified as fancy, fine, and known marks, but they may not be full cream.”

Imported Cheese.

Swiss Cheese comes from Switzerland, and more of this is imported than of all others combined. Next stands Edam from Holland. The delicious Roquefort Cheese, made in France, from ewes milk and kept in mountain caves to ripen, stands third in the list of imported cheeses, and Parmesan stands fourth; it is made from skimmed milk, the curd hardened by a gentle heat. This and SBRINZ cheese are used for soups—grated. Gorgonzola is a fine, rich, Italian cheese, each weighing about ten pounds. Other good Italian cheeses are made from the milk of the buffalo which feed on the Roman Campagna. Stilton is the finest of English cheeses. It is made from full milk with added cream. It improves with age, and is best when at least two years old. The Cheddar, Cheshire and Queen’s Arms are other varieties of good English cheese.

Eggs.

Eggs are cheap and substantial food. The white is mostly albumen, while the yolk is two-thirds oil. Turkeys eggs are pronounced the best in flavor. Guinea hens eggs are excellent, and keep well on account of their thick shells. Goose eggs are larger, whiter, and less esteemed. Duck eggs are bluish, and less desirable than hens eggs. Eight hens eggs weigh a pound.

Lard.

Good, pure lard should be white, should melt without ebullition or sputtering, be almost as clear and white as water, and not deposit any sediment. It is composed of oleine 62 parts, stearine 65 parts. The fat of the hog taken from around the kidneys and the layers over the ribs is called “Leaf lard” and is better, firmer and will stand warm weather better, than lard made from the entire fat of the animal.

Lard Admixtures.—There is no complaint that lard is adulterated with substances injurious to health; but in February, 1888, a leading lard manufacturer testified before the Senate Committee on Agriculture, at Washington, that seven-eighths of the lard now on the market is made from the entire fat of the hog, refined and purified, and mixed with a proportion of refined cotton seed oil and about 15 per cent. of stearine, to give it hardness. This, he claimed, is preferred by the public generally to strictly pure lard. The testimony of Prof. Sharpless, of Boston, given at the same time and place, substantially bore out this statement as to the ingredients used, although in the many analyses of American lard made by him, he found some brands which were absolutely pure hog products. Lard is sometimes adulterated with water, but this may be easily detected by melting it, evaporating the water, and reweighing.

Lard may be had in barrels, wooden and tin tubs and pails, and in one pound tin cups. It is also retailed in bulk, like butter.

Fresh Meats and Poultry.

Beef.—Good beef should be juicy, somewhat firm and elastic, velvety and smooth grained to the touch, and “marbled” with little streaks, dots or points of fat. The suet fat should be plentiful, white, firm, dry, and crumbly; if the fat is yellow, oily, or fibrous, the beef is inferior.

Mutton is wholesome, nutritious, and easily digested. The best is from a plump, small boned animal, with abundant white, clear, solid fat. The lean should be firm, dark red, and juicy, the leg bones clear, white, and short. Good Lamb has hard, white fat and reddish bones.

Pork is best in fall and winter. The skin should be thin and pearly, the lean a delicate red, juicy, firm, and finely grained, and the fat white. If the fat is yellow and soft, the pork is inferior. Pork is dangerous if not thoroughly cooked.

Veal should be from a good sized, reasonably fat milk or stall fed calf, five to ten weeks old. The fat should be firm and white, but not too white; the meat finely grained, fairly firm, and juicy.

Poultry.—Many farmers have found that it pays better to feed their grain to poultry than to sell it by the bushel, and poultry is therefore much more abundant, cheaper, and more widely consumed than ever before. The dry-picked or unscalded has the preference in price. The best have short legs and small bones, and are plump. If fresh, the eyes are bright and full, the feet and legs moist and limber. If stale, poultry looks dark and slimy. When chickens grow to be a year old they are called fowl; the legs grow rougher, the skin fat and tougher, and the rear end of the breast bone hard. A moderate sized TURKEY is more apt to be tender than a very large one.

Smoked and Dried Meats and Fish.

Hams, etc.—The best are of medium size, weighing, say, from 8 to 14 pounds, plump, round, and the bone small. The shank should be short and tapering, skin thin and not shriveled or wrinkled, and the fat white and firm. To ascertain if ham has begun to spoil, thrust a skewer or knife in at the side of the aitch bone and at the knuckle joint; if sound there, it is good throughout. Bacon.—This is the smoked flank. Breakfast Bacon, made from young pigs, is very delicate and palatable. Beef Tongues are a delicacy, whether fresh, smoked, or pickled, hot or cold. The best are thick, firm, and with plenty of fat on the under side of the base.

Dried Cod.—This is an important grocers’ staple. The largest and best are caught on the “Banks” or in the deep waters off the Eastern coast. Some are sold whole and others are deprived of the back bone. Codfish is also prepared for market by being boned, skinned, trimmed, and even shredded. Other and inferior fish, such as Haddock, Hake, Pollock, etc., are often sold for cod, when salted, and especially when prepared as above.

Herring, smoked whole, or scaled and boneless, are widely consumed. The freshest, fattest, and largest are best. Smoked SALMON, HALIBUT, and STURGEON, are appetizing relishes for the summer tea table. There are also EELS pickled in jelly. SARDELLES—small fish packed in highly salted milk, smoked SPRATS, ANCHOVIES, etc.

Salt or Pickled Fish.

Mackerel have the front rank in this line, and there are few good tables on which they do not occasionally appear. They are sold by the grocer in barrels and fractions of barrels, in kits of 20, 15, and 10 pounds, in tins, minus heads and tails, and by the single fish. The best are the fattest, largest, and freshest of the current season. They should be free from rust and soaked before cooking until all the brine is drawn out. They can be afterwards salted, if necessary. They are graded as “Extra” and “Fancy” “Shores” and “Bays,” and vary in size and fatness, as numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Salmon, etc.—Both Halifax and Oregon salmon are pickled or salted, and in demand in many sections of the country, and pickled SALMON BELLIES are very fine. Herring and COD are also to be had in brine.

Meat Essences and Extracts.