The French Wine and Liquor Manufacturer

The liquor trade's own 1868 handbook — stills, cordials, imitation brandies and how wines were doctored, preserved as printed.

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Honey

has a very pleasant smell, quite familiar enough without description. Twenty-five lbs. of caraway seed yield about 16 ounces of the essential oil. This aroma is used in "Recipes" Nos. 4 and 8 for gin, and enters largely into the composition of cordials.

Wintergreen or Partridge Berry.

This plant is a small shrubby evergreen, and grows indigenous from Canada to Georgia. To the very peculiar aromatic odor and taste which belong to the whole plant, the leaves add a marked astringency. The aromatic properties reside in a volatile oil, which may be separated by distillation. This oil is soluble in ether or alcohol, and is the heaviest of all the essential oils; this peculiarity affords an unerring test of its purity. When combined with acetic ether this oil gives a fine flavor for gin. (See "Recipe No. 10.") It is also much used to flavor "Monongahela," "Old Rye," and "Bourbon" whiskeys. For the latter, use 50 drops to 100 gallons; cut in alcohol 95 per cent or acetic ether.

Honey.

Pure honey consists of a syrup of uncrystallizable sugar, and crystalline saccharine grains resembling grape sugar. Virgin honey is that which flows spontaneously from the comb. Ordinary honey is that obtained by heat and pressure. The former is pale and fragrant; the latter darker, and possessing a less agreeable taste and smell.

Honey is frequently adulterated with molasses, potato sugar, syrup, starch, wheat flour, and water. The first may be detected by the color and odor; the second by boiling a sample of the honey for a short time in water

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