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Apple Oil

Butyric Acid.

The sour taste of milk is owing to the formation of lactic acid. This acid is also generated during the fermentation of the beet, turnip, and other bulbous roots. The casein* in the milk gradually conveys milk-sugar and other kinds into this acid; if a small portion of casein be introduced into a solution of cane or milk-sugar, lactic acid soon forms, but the transforming action of the casein does not here cease: in time, a fermentation commences, and butyric acid is produced. Butyric acid thus produced emits a mingled odor of acetic acid and rancid butter. This acid is the principal constituent of rum, and is therefore much used in making an imitation of that article. (See "Butyric Ether," "Rum Essence," "Fruit Essences," etc.) Soot.

This well known substance has a peculiar smell and a bitterish, disagreeable taste. Its composition is very complex; it contains cloride of potassium, ammonia, sulphate of lime, acetic acid, nitric acid, and creosote. The insoluble parts of soot form nearly 50 per cent of the substance. Soot has been highly recommended as a flavor for rum, by a celebrated chemist, but we have never used it ourselves.

Apple Oil. (VALERIANATE OF AMYLIC ETHER.) This is one of the newly discovered "fruit oils." It is formed during the preparation of valerianic acid from potatoe oil, and is recognized by the offensive odor of rotten apples evolved during the process. By treating * The curd or coagulable portion of milk. Cheese made from skimmed milk, and well pressed, is nearly pure casein.