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FLAVORING EXTRACTS, FRUIT-JUICES, Etc

The following directions for the preparation at home of extracts, etc., are contributed by a trustworthy and experienced dealer, and may be relied upon. Of flavoring extracts put up for the general market, almond and peach are seldom pure, and are sometimes even poisonous. The other kinds are less liable to be adulterated. To prepare vanilla, take one ounce of fresh vanilla beans, cut fine, and rub thoroughly with two ounces granulated sugar, put in a pint bottle, and pour over it four ounces pure water, and ten ounces of ninety-five per cent. deodorized alcohol. Set in a warm place, and shake occasionally for fourteen days. To prepare lemon, cut in small pieces the rinds of two lemons, put in a four-ounce bottle, and fill with deodorized strong alcohol, set in a warm place for a week; then put two drams fresh oil of lemon, four ounces of deodorized strong alcohol, and the juice of half a lemon, in a bottle of sufficient size to hold all; then strain in the tincture of lemon peel. / To make orange extract, use the rind and oil of orange, as directed for lemon.

To make rose extract, put one ounce of red rose leaves in one pint of de odorized alcohol, let stand eight days; press out the liquid from the leaves, and add it to a half dram of otto of roses.

Oils must be fresh and pure, or the extract will have a turpentine taste and always use deodorized alcohol.

For fruit juices, select clean, ripe fruit, press out juice, and strain it through flannel; to each pint of juice, add six ounces pure granulated sugar; put in a porcelain kettle, bring to boiling point, and bottle while hot, in two or four ounce bottles.

Canned-fruit juice may be used in the same way. These juices are a per fect substitute for brandy, wine, etc., in all puddings, and sauces, etc For gold coloring, take one ounce turmeric to two ounces alcohol.

To filter water and alcoholic solutions (not syrups), pass through filtering paper, folded in conical form, so as to set into a funnel (a half-pint glass funnel is best). The paper is kept at all drug stores.

THE NEW "PATENT PROCESS FLOUR."-In all markets the best and highestpriced flour is now known as the Minnesota "New Process." A few years ago the process was invented and first used in the young city of Minneapolis, which now exports nearly a million and a quarter barrels of flour yearly, and finds a market for it in every part of the United States and Europe. The wheat from which this flour is made, is the hard spring wheat, raised in the extreme North, that raised south of Minnesota and Dakota being inferior, and most of it not available for the best grades, while that raised on the line of the North Pacific, and in the rich valley of the Red River of the North, makes the very highest grades of flour. This hard wheat is first passed through rollers and mashed; then to the stones, which are run at a low rate of speed, and so dressed that the grinding is nearly all done near the outer edge of the stone, the "runner" being set high, so as not to heat the flour, but to leave it in hard, sharp globules. From this stone it is conveyed to a series of bolts, where the bran is separated, the softer and finer particles being passed through and put up as lower grades of flour, known as "All- Wheat Flour." The coarser particles and "middlings" are separated by this process, and conveyed to the purifiers, where they are thoroughly cleaned of all bran and impurities; after which, they go to the stones to be reground and rebolted, and thus made into the "New Process Flour." These middlings are mainly from the outer portion of the kernel, which lies immediately below the flinty and worthless husk (which goes off in bran), and is rich in the nutritious gluten--the nitrogenous principle of wheat which makes it rank first as a "force-producing" food. Before the introduction of this process, the stones were driven at a high rate of speed, and the wheat thoroughly ground by the first run through the mill, the flour coming out quite hot, and much of its strength lost by the heating. The comparative rate of speed may be known by the fact that only five bushels are ground per hour by the new process; while, with the old, from fifteen to eighteen would have been consumed. By the old process, the "middlings" made a second rate dark flour; by the new, it is transformed into the best known to the trade.

That this flour is the most economical for use, there is no doubt among those who have tried it. The hard spring wheat makes a much stronger flour than any of the soft varieties of spring or winter wheat, because it contains a larger portion of gluten and less starch; and a given quantity will make from fifteen to twenty per cent. more loaves of bread of the same size and weight than the best winter wheat flour. This fact is what has given Minnesota bakers' grades their popularity. Another advantage possessed by this flour, especially for family use, is that bread from it does not become stale and dry as soon as that made from winter wheat, but retains its moisture and good table qualities much longer.

The following in regard to the New Process Flour is from George H.