Laundry starch is mostly made from corn. The grain is crushed and fermented to a degree, when the starch is washed out and allowed to settle in large vats. The best qualities are washed and settled again and again; the number of washings grading the strength, purity and cost. Potato starch is more costly than corn starch, and, as it gives a softer finish to fabrics, is chiefly used by manufacturers. Corn starch for culinary purposes is thoroughly washed, purified and deodorized. Laundry starch should never be eaten.
The best laundry starch is in large, hard, flinty crystals; such indicate a stronger starch, containing less moisture than that with small or soft crystals. Laundry starch comes in bulk or boxes, and in paper packages. There are many fancy proprietary brands of starch, as “Ivory,” “Ivorine,” “Gloss,” “Satin Gloss,” “Silver Gloss,” “Gloss Polish,” “Elastic,” etc. Some of them are powdered, and contain borax, wax, or gum, etc., and are scented with winter-green, etc. Such come higher than the better grades of laundry starch in crystals, but it is a question if they are proportionately superior for family use. Starch polishes are preparations of spermaceti, wax, or paraffine.
This article may be had in balls, powders, or in a liquid form. There are a goodly number of proprietary brands, some of which give a tint which appears somewhat greenish when placed by the side of a pure and delicate blue. The coloring principle is usually indigo, Prussian blue, or the favorite ultramarine. The most satisfactory laundry blueing is that which is really and intensely blue in tint, and which is most completely soluble in water, so that it will be well distributed and not make the clothes look streaked.
In some sections, candles form an important article of trade. They are now made in a great variety of exquisite tints by the use of analine colors of various sizes and weights, and with patent self-fitting ends. The more costly kinds are made of spermaceti, wax, stearine, paraffine, etc., down to the pressed, adamantine, and common tallow candles. Some carry embossed and handsome decalcomania decorations and are either white, blue, green, pink, yellow, red, etc., or assorted. There are “Boudoir,” “Piano,” “Cleopatra,” “Cable,” and “Flag” candles, wax “Night Lights,” “Christmas Tree Candles,” and wax “Gas Lighters,” warranted not to drip.
Brushes.—No domestic article is in more common use than the brush in its various forms. The best bristles come from the wild hog of Russia and Poland. The whitest and finest are used for paint, tooth, hat, hair, and clothes brushes. Some brushes are made with one tuft only, like the paint brush, others with many. The best are “Wire drawn;” that is, the tufts are bent double to form loops through which wires are passed, to draw and hold them firmly into the holes of the base. Others have the tufts wedged or glued in. Brushes are made with long and short handles, and of every conceivable form and quality, from “Sink scrubs” upward.
Brooms.—The finer the corn the better the broom. A natural green color indicates toughness and flexibility, and such corn is better than that which is of a sickly yellow or lemon color. But the latter is often given the desired green tint by artificial colorings. Plain or unpainted handles are best, good brooms weigh 25 to 30 pounds to the dozen, but extra large and heavy ones are made weighing 40 to 50 pounds.
Washboards.—There are fifty or more varieties of these “Monday Morning Pianos.” Metal scrubbers are preferred to wood, which is liable to splinter, wound the fingers, and tear the clothes. And a plain crimp is better for fabrics than a rougher crimp, although the latter may extract the dirt quicker. A favorite variety have adjustable chest protectors. Clothes pins are of two kinds, the old fashioned and the spring clasp. The latter are little used.
Mops.—There are two kinds in the stores; one of twisted twine, which is generally thought to be most durable, the other of cotton and less expensive.
Stove Polish.—This is chiefly plumbago or black lead. Among the favorite brands are “Dixon,” “Rising Sun,” “A. B. C.,” etc. There is also a liquid preparation or “Enamel,” said to give a good polish without dust or smell, and with little labor.
Blacking.—The best is that which will, without injury to the leather, most easily and quickly give a handsome and durable polish. Besides the excellent domestic varieties, there are the French Marcerou, and Jacquot’s, in tin boxes, which are reliable and but little more expensive, and the old time Day & Martin’s blacking in stone jugs. For ladies’ use there are many domestic and imported SHOE DRESSINGS in liquid form, which require no rubbing.
Matches.—Common sulphur matches are made both square and round, and come packed in various kinds of boxes and papers. Parlor matches, of American, Swedish, and other foreign manufacture, are made without sulphur; and chloride of potash, antimony, etc., are often used instead of phosphorus. The splints are sometimes soaked in oil or paraffine to make them burn freely. Safety Matches have the phosphorus on sand paper and the other materials on the ends of the splints, and neither can be ignited except by friction with the other. There are many kinds of WAX TAPERS, “Flaming Lights,” etc.
Seeds.—The raising of seeds has become a large industry. Leading producers make careful tests of all their seeds, and even offer valuable prizes for the best vegetables and flowers grown from them. Some grocers lay in every season a fresh and full supply of all the seeds used in the garden or field, and they are almost always reliable.
Birdseed, Food, ETC.—Canary seed comes both in bulk and pound packages, either alone or mixed with millet, German rape seed, etc.; many packages contain a piece of cuttle fish bone. There are BIRD GRAVEL, BIRD PEPPER, MOCKING BIRD FOOD in bottles, etc.
Insect Powder.—There are a number of these vegetable preparations which are effective, if genuine and unadulterated, as the Persian, Buhach (or Californian), Dalmatian, etc.
Disinfectants.—Chloride of Lime in various sized packages of tin and paper, and various liquid preparations in bottles and kegs, are put up for domestic use.
Pails.—Ordinary water pails have either 2 or 3 hoops. Those not painted on the inside are preferred. Wood pulp pails give good satisfaction, and a new pail with sunken hoops is just coming into market.
Among other articles sometimes kept by the grocer, may be mentioned: Irish Moss, Anatto and other butter colorings, Licorice, Chewing Gum, Fruit Juices, Hops, Rennet, Ink, Paper and Pens, Pencils, Slates, Mucilage, Playing Cards, Beeswax, Cement, Concentrated Potash, Lye, Lime, Chalk, Oils, Kerosene, Dyes, Paints dry and mixed; Rosin, Tar, Turpentine, White Lead, Varnishes, Indigo, Glue, Putty, Powder, Shot, Caps, Wads, Axle Grease, Curry Combs, Condition Powders, Can Openers, Cordage, Coffee Mills, Bath Brick, Polishing Powder, Wick, Baskets, Boxes in Nests, Tubs, Dippers, Measures, Lemon Squeezers, Mouse Traps, Sieves, Feather Dusters, Rolling Pins, Ax Handles, Tacks, Crockery, Glass and Stone Ware, Borax, Bay Rum, Ammonia, Sponges, Camphor, Sal Soda, Perfumes, Plasters, Fly Killer Paper, Witch Hazel, and a great variety of standard drugs and proprietary medicines.
While there are some grocers who, for various reasons do not handle these products, there are also many who keep for the family use of their customers a full line of choice wines, malt beverages, and distilled liquors. This work would therefore be incomplete without reference to these articles, and it is believed that the few facts given below concerning them will be found interesting and instructive.
Pure wine is merely grape juice fermented. When the sugar of the grape is wholly or nearly converted by fermentation into natural vinous spirits or alcohol, the result is a STILL or DRY WINE. If the sugar is very abundant, as in overripe grapes, and a considerable portion of it remains unfermented, a SWEET WINE like Tokay or Malmsey is produced. When fermentation has proceeded to a certain stage and the liquid is bottled, so that it continues to ferment and produce carbonic acid gas, the result is an effervescent wine, as SPARKLING CHAMPAGNE. If, during fermentation, the process be arrested by the addition of alcohol, certain vegetable substances are retained in the liquid, and such wines as PORT and SHERRY are the product.
Wines, as well as all varieties of malt and spirituous liquors, owe their intoxicating qualities to alcohol. But the medical and dietetic qualities of wine are not solely due to it; a mixture of water and alcohol, or whiskey of equal strength, has a very different effect on the animal economy. Pure wines contain also natural acids, sugar, ethers, albumen, phosphates, etc. Their value is, however, mainly determined by their “Bouquet” or flavor, produced by substances natural to the grapes, heightened and rendered more delicate by fermentation.
The quantity of alcohol in natural wine from grapes, varies between 5 and 12 per cent.; the quantity of free acid from 3 to 7 per cent. If more of the latter be present, the wine tastes excessively sour, and is less easily digested; but some acid in wine is essential, and contributes much to its flavor and virtues. Besides the natural acids which exist in the juice of the grape, cheap and inferior wines often contain, also, the hurtful acids of spoiling, showing the approach to vinegar.
Even a bird’s-eye glance at the wines of the world, might easily fill a volume. There are the superb French wines of Burgundy and Champagne, which ancient Provinces are now almost one splendid, continuous vineyard; and the Clarets, Sauternes, etc. of Bordeaux and Languedoc. Medoc and Haut Medoc are known to wine lovers everywhere, for here are the famous vineyards of the Chateau Lafitte, owned by Baron Rothschild; the Chateaux Margaux, Latour, and many others.
The principal wine districts of Germany are the valleys of the Rhine and Moselle and their tributaries, whence come the well known Hock and the red and white wines, which, though sometimes rather thin and deficient in flavor, are never colored, plastered, boiled, or have spirits added to them, and are therefore natural and wholesome. Here also is the renowned Johannisberg Castle vineyard, owned by the family of Prince Meternich. Every bottle of this wine bears his family arms, and it is the beverage of Emperors and Kings. By reason of its exquisite “Bouquet” it is pronounced “The finest and costliest drink on earth.”
Hungary sends forth her “Imperial” opal-tinted Tokay wines, made of overripe grapes, from which the juices are never squeezed but allowed to drop; other Hungarian wines are as dry as those of France, as mellow as those of Germany, and more fragrant than the choicest of Spain. Italy, Spain and Portugal produce wines of much repute, but neither of the latter two countries make sparkling wines; they supply Sherry and Port which generally have spirits added to them.
The wines of California and other sections of the United States are rapidly rising in popular estimation, and the time is probably not far distant when they will rival those of any part of the world. The consumption of domestic vintages increases with the constant improvement in their quality, which follows the slowly acquired knowledge, as to the best methods of turning the luscious juices of our own abundant grapes into wine.
The French make four varieties of champagne, viz.: Non-Mousseux, Cremant, Mousseux, and Grand-Mousseux. The first is fully fermented wine, fined, drawn into bottles, and allowed to rest a long time. Cremant is moderately sparkling. Mousseux throws out its cork with an audible report and begins gently to overflow. Grand-Mousseux pops out the cork with a loud noise and overflows with much foam, as it has the pressure of five atmospheres. A sound, rather dry champagne is said to be one of the best of remedies for impaired digestion.
Good champagne throws up for a long time after being opened a continuous stream of small, sparkling bubbles of gas:
Even after hours of exposure, when it has lost all its excess of carbonic acid, good champagne still retains the characteristic flavor of true wine, while an inferior sparkling wine becomes, after exposure, almost as insipid as a mixture of sugar and water. The best are made from the first pressings of the grape. Those made from a third, fourth or fifth pressing require the addition of sugar and are cloying and far inferior in flavor. Imitation champagnes are made by sweetening any ordinary still wines or cider and charging them with carbonic acid gas.
Malt liquors, properly so called, should be made only of malted barley, hops, yeast and water, but other materials are also used. Porter is a beer of a high percentage of alcohol and made from malt dried at a high temperature, which gives it its dark color. Ale is pale beer with considerable alcohol and made of pale malt, with more hop extract than porter.
As every per cent. of sugar in the malt yields by fermentation about half a per cent. of alcohol, it is evident that ale, porter, and lager beer are stronger or weaker, as more or less malt is used in making them.
Beers are stimulating from their alcohol and refreshing from their carbonic acid, besides being tonic and somewhat nutritive. The oil of the hops gives them aroma and the lupulin they contain soothes the nerves. Their taste is vinous, sweetish, and bitter at the same time. The quantity of alcohol in malt liquors was given by Prof. Englehardt, as the result of analyses made for the N. Y. State Board of Health, in 1885, as follows.
| Per cent of alcohol by weight. |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| Lager, average | 192 samples | 3.754 | |
| Ale | “ | 199 samples | 4.622 |
| Porter | ” | 70 samples | 4.462 |
| Weiss Beer | “ | 28 samples | 2.356 |
It has been popularly supposed that beer is much adulterated. But the result of many analyses made by Mr. C. A. Crampton, for the Department of Agriculture at Washington, last year, show him “That beer is as free from adulteration as most other articles of consumption, and more so than some.” The analyst found that, practically, no foreign bitters other than hops were used; but he also found that nearly one quarter of the samples analyzed contained, as a preservative, the unwholesome salicylic acid. This powerful drug is also largely used in the manufacture of cheap wines, etc., and the practice should be rigidly prohibited.
Ginger Ale is made by fermenting sweetened water, to which extract of ginger has been added, to such a degree as to generate carbonic acid gas and become effervescent. It is a healthful and agreeable beverage, containing some alcohol and being slightly stimulant.
Good Cider contains 3 to 5 per cent. of alcohol. It is made from the fermented juice of apples. Many grown people acquired their fondness for cider on the “Old Farm” in childhood. It is sold by grocers in bulk, and is also bottled extensively and sold as “Champagne cider,” and quite often as champagne.
The disagreeable taste of freshly distilled ardent spirits is due to the presence of fusil oil and other empyreumatic substances, which time alone can transform into harmless ethers which smell and taste agreeably, and produce an exhilaration over and above that of the alcohol which holds them in solution. Spirits can be distilled from any vegetable matter which will yield alcohol, yet many substances yield only a rasping, nauseous or flavorless liquor, which age does not improve. To some of these products, artificial flavors and color are given and the imitation articles are thus placed on the market. But true whiskey, brandy, etc., have a specific and original flavor of their own, and contain vegetable oils and acids.
The following table shows the proportion of alcohol (by volume) in the various liquors.
| Volume of Alcohol, per cent. |
||
|---|---|---|
| Cognac Brandy | 55 to 70 | |
| Arrack, made from Rice | 60 to 61 | |
| Whiskey, | American | 60 |
| “ | Scotch | 50 to 51 |
| ” | Irish | 50 |
| Rum | 49-7 | |
| Gin | 47-8 | |
Brandy.—This is made from wine; that from white grapes is preferred and it requires about seven bottles of wine to make one of brandy. Even the best Cognac is burning and rough until kept for two or three years, and it improves with increased age, until, when thirty or forty years old, it develops a flavor somewhat similar to that of vanilla.
Whiskey is a spirit distilled either from fermented malt, rye, barley, oats, wheat or corn. The very best and sweetest grain is only used for making good whiskey. American whiskey is more easily obtained pure than perhaps any spirituous liquor and is therefore more reliable in this country. The name whiskey is a corruption of the Erse and Irish word Usquebaugh, “Water of Life,” the French Eau de Vie.
Rum is made from distilled molasses and skimmings from the boiling sugar.
Gin is distilled from unmalted grain, the product being rectified and flavored with juniper berries.
Champagnes come in quarts and pints, Sec or “Dry,” “Extra Dry,” etc. Among favorite Brands are those of Heidsieck, Mumm, Roederer, Cliquot, Bouché, Morizet, Pommery, Delbeck, etc.; the American Champagnes of California, Urbanna, Pleasant Valley, etc., besides various imitation sparkling wines. Among favorite Clarets are St. Julien, Medoc, St. Emillion, St. Estephe, Floirac, Pontet Canet, Chateaux Margaux, Lafitte, La Rose, etc.; also the Sauternes and White Wines of Graves; Barsac, Chateaux, Yquem, Latour, etc. There are the Johannisberger, Hockheimer, Rüdesheimer, Marcobrunner of the Rhine; the Italien Capri, Falerno and Chianti; Port, Sherry and Madeira of various brands; and Claret, Port, Sherry, Muscatel, Angelica, Tokay, and other vintages of American make.
Cordials include Anisette, Benedictine, Curaçao, Chartreuse, Maraschino, Kirschwasser, Kummel, Chocolate, Ginger, Raspberry, Rock and Rye, and Absynthe. There are Ales, Porter, Stout, Lager Beer, Peach and Apple cider, Orgeat, Soda and Sarsaparilla. Favorite Brandies are those of Otard, Hennessy, Martelle, Robin, Seignette, Dupin, and good California Brandy; also Blackberry, Cherry, Ginger, Peach and Cider Brandies. Besides scores of fine American Whiskeys, there are the Scotch Thistle and Irish Cruiskeen Lawn; Old Tom, London, Holland and Geneva Gins; St. Croix, Jamaica and N. E. Rums. Many Grocers keep also a supply of Natural and Artificial Mineral Waters, as the Congress, Hathorn, etc., of Saratoga; Carlsbad, Seltzer, Clysmic, Vichy, Apollonaris, Williams Quelle, Lithia, Hunyadi; and a variety of Bitter Waters.
| Printed | Corrected | Page | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tarter | Tartar | 3 | Cream of Tartar |
| Marmelades | Marmalades | 3 | Marmalades |
| molases | molasses | 5 | molasses and whale oil. |
| SELF-RAISING | SELF-RAISING, | 14 | wheat granulated, SELF-RAISING, |
| VERMICILLI | VERMICELLI | 17 | VERMICELLI, Spaghetti. |
| disagreeble | disagreeable | 18 | is very disagreeable, |
| peeple | people | 27 | but some people seem |
| Firsts’ | Firsts” | 30 | Firsts” must be a grade |
| semi transparent | semi-transparent | 33 | and is semi-transparent before |
| exhilerating | exhilarating | 36 | its exhilarating properties |
| piminto | pimento | 41 | oil pressed out, with pimento |
| unground | unground. | 41 | sold whole or unground. |
| potatoe | potato | 47 | tuber like the potato; |
| crystalize | crystallize | 49 | crystallize the grape sugar |
| Seives | Sieves | 58 | Sieves, Feather Dusters, |
| Lauguedoc | Languedoc | 60 | of Bordeaux and Languedoc. |
| Margeaux | Margaux | 60 | Margaux, Latour, and many |
| unwholsome | unwholesome | 62 | unwholesome salicylic acid. |
| heathful | healthful | 63 | It is a healthful and |
| Cogñac | Cognac | 63 | Cognac Brandy |
| Cogñac | Cognac | 64 | Cognac is burning and rough |
| Heidseick | Heidsieck | 64 | are those of Heidsieck, Mumm |
| Rudescheimer | Rüdesheimer | 64 | Rüdesheimer, Marcobrunner of the |
| Curaçoa | Curaçao | 64 | Benedictine, Curaçao, Chartreuse |
| Kirchwasser | Kirshwasser | 64 | Maraschino, Kirschwasser, Kummel |
| Chocolat | Chocolate | 64 | Chocolate, Ginger, Raspberry, |
| ariety | variety | 64 | variety of Bitter Waters. |
On page 59, under Grocers’ Sundries, two newlines and a blank line were removed before “Borax”.
Some irregular spellings have been retained.