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On Manufacturing Brandy
and hydrogen, and one solid, carbon. A perfectly pure article is not known in commerce-from its great affinity for water, its strength is rapidly reduced. The officinal strength of alcohol, by the United States Pharmacopœia, is .85, that of the diluted alcohol, .58. The Spiritus Rectificatus of the London Pharmacopeia is .84.
The volatile oil, known in commerce as oil of Cognac, is enanthic ether (chemically, an enanthate of oxide of ethyl), a colorless liquid, having a peculiar vinous odor, and a slight taste, which becomes at length acrid to the tongue. Its specific gravity is 0.872. Insoluble in water, it dissolves readily in alcohol or ether.
Enanthic acid (hydrated oxide of carbon) is considered by most chemists to be identical in composition with pelargonic acid, the difference resulting in the different arrangement of the molecules. Gregory, alone, makes the two different.
The volatile oil above, by which the peculiar flavor of Cognac brandy is imparted, must not be confounded with the heavy oil of wine, which is a double sulphate of ether and ethylen, and is a yellowish, oily neutral liquid, with a penetrating odor, and rather sharp and bitter taste, and having a specific gravity from 1.02 to 1.096.
Acetic acid is the base of vinegar, and requires no description. Acetic ether (chemically, the acetate of the oxide of ethyl) is a peculiar combination of acetic acid and alcohol, through distillation, and undergoes no change by keeping. It is colorless, has a grateful odor, and a peculiar and agreeable taste. Its specific gravity is 0.866.
Tannic acid, when pure, is solid, uncrystalizable, white, inodorous, easily soluble in water, and less so in alcohol or ether. As usually met with, it has a greenish yellow tinge, and is in the shape of a light, coarse powder. It is the astringent principle of oak and other barks, and its presence in brandy is due to the skins of the grape. All the above are described more fully hereafter, under their proper heads.
Aldehyd, of which there is a slight amount in brandy is alcohol, deprived of a portion of its carbon. It is a colorless, inflammable liquid, with a pungent taste and smell, and a density of 0.79. It absorbs oxygen readily, and is then converted into acetic acid.
There is sometimes, in inferior brandy, some amylic alcohol (hydrated oxide of amyl) commonly known as fusil oil. The nearly entire absence of this is necessary to a healthful brandy.
The constituent parts of brandy having been determined by analysis, it may be reproduced by synthesis; but to do this, so as to produce a perfect imitation, or rather to recreate a true brandy, it is not only necessary to know the proportion of the constituents which analytical chemistry supplies, but also to know how to combine them effectually. This knowledge having been taught us by experience, we proceed to impart to others.
To make Brandy without Foreign Liquor.
RECIPE No. 1.
To 100 gals. pure spirits, 5 to 10 over proof, add or oz. oil of Cognac, lb. black tea, 1/4 oz. oil of prune kernals, cut in alcohol 95°, + gal. sugar syrup, 2 oz. acetic ether, Color with sugar coloring.
Be very careful not to add any more Cognac oil than is given in the above recipe. (See "Cognac Oil.") To vary your flavor, instead of the oil of prune kernals, add 1 to 2 oz. rum essence, or 40 drops oil of neroly dissolved in 1 pint of alcohol, 95.° All manufactured brandies are much improved by being filtered. (See "Brandy Filter.") Age improves this as well as all manufactured brandies.
The above, or any of the following recipes, may be prepared in smaller quantities by observing the proper proportions of the ingredients used. (See Appendix.) To make Brandy without Foreign Liquor.
RECIPE No. 2.
To 100 gals. pure spirits, 5 o. p., add: to oz. oil of Cognac, cut in alcohol, 95°, lb. black tea, 1/4 gal. sugar syrup, * oz. star anise, prepared in the following manner:
Break only the stars of your anise without mashing the kernals, infuse for 6 hours (see "Infusion") in 1 pint alcohol, 95°. This is the veritable old Cognac flavor, and has the bed-bug aroma so much prized by the French manufacturers. Add to all the above ingredients, when mixed, 2 oz. acetic ether. Color with sugar coloring.
To make Brandy without Foreign Liquor.
RECIPE No. 3.
To 20 gals. pure spirits, 5 o. p., add : 1 pint quince syrup, + drachm tannin powder, 4 drops oil neroly (cut in a gill of spirits), To vary this flavor, add 1/8 oz. green anise, mashed up. 글 1/2 drachm oil of Cognac. 66 acetic ether, pint wine vinegar.
Color to the desired tint with sugar coloring.
To make Brandy without Foreign Liquor.
RECIPE No. 4.
To 40 gals. pure spirits, 5 o. p., add : 1 drachm Cognac oil, 1 pint spirit of raisins (see page 65), 66 1 spirit of prunes (see page 64), 1 drachm tannin powder, 1 oz. acetic ether, 3 drops oil neroly (cut in alcohol, 95 per cent.) Color to the desired tint with sugar coloring.
To make Brandy without Foreign Liquor.
RECIPE No. 5.
To 80 gals. pure spirits, 5 o. p., add : 5 lbs. St. John's bread, 5 “ raisins, 4 oz. orris root, powdered, 1/2 lb. white argol (crude wine-stone), 1 oz. acetic ether.
Color with sugar coloring.
Boil the St. John's bread and raisins together in 2 gals. soft water for 5 minutes, and when cold, filter. Pour over the powdered orris root 1/4 gal. boiling water, and when cold, filter. Dissolve the white argol in 1 quart soft water, and filter. When the above ingredients are thus prepared they are ready for use. * Neroly is a splendid beading for brandy.
These are compounding formulas: recipes for flavouring neutral spirit so it passes as aged Cognac, not for distilling wine. Several of the materials called for are not food ingredients by any current standard, and the quantities in this section are unreliable, so the pages are worth reading as a document rather than following.
- Oil of prune kernelsExpressed or distilled oil from stone-fruit kernels can carry amygdalin-derived hydrogen cyanide unless it has been rectified to remove it, and a nineteenth-century trade name is no guarantee of which grade was supplied. The dose in the first recipe is illegible here, so there is no way to reproduce the compounder's judgement at home.
- Oil of CognacThe text's own warning is the hinge of the first recipe: be very careful not to add any more Cognac oil than is given. Enanthic (oenanthic) ether was a concentrated flavouring; the doses that survive here are fractions of an ounce or of a drachm to tens of gallons, and the author's warning suggests it was easily overdosed.
- Star aniseChinese star anise, Illicium verum, is edible, but it is very hard to distinguish from Japanese star anise, Illicium anisatum, which is neurotoxic and has repeatedly turned up in commercial supplies. The book's instruction to break the stars but not crush the kernels is a flavour matter, not a safety one.
- The quantities are not usableNearly every fraction in these five recipes has been lost, leaving "or oz.", "+ oz." and bare "lb." with no number. Working from a formula in which the potent aromatic oils have no stated dose is exactly the failure mode the author warns against.
- "5 o. p."Five over proof. The book does not say which scale: on the British Sikes scale that is roughly 60 per cent alcohol by volume, on the American proof scale nearer 52 or 53 per cent. "Pure spirits" here means neutral grain spirit, the industrial base that made the whole business possible.
- Vanished shop namesSt. John's bread is carob pod. Argol is crude potassium bitartrate scraped from wine casks, the raw form of cream of tartar. Neroly is neroli, the distilled oil of bitter orange flower, used here as a "beading" agent to make the spirit throw a convincing ring of bubbles. Sugar colouring is caramel colour.
- Old unitsA gill is four fluid ounces, half a US cup. A drachm, in apothecaries' measure, is an eighth of an ounce, close to 3.9 grams by weight, or a scant teaspoon by fluid measure.
- Fusel oilThe amylic alcohol the author wants absent is the same fusel character distillers still manage today. His chemistry is broadly sound; the passage on aldehyde as "alcohol deprived of a portion of its carbon" is not, and reflects pre-structural formula thinking.
- LegalityBlending, flavouring and colouring spirits for sale is a licensed and taxed activity in most jurisdictions that tax alcohol.
Compounding manuals like this one flourished in the United States in the 1860s and 1870s, when a rectifier with a stock of neutral grain spirit, a shelf of essential oils and a sugar-colouring pot could turn out anything a saloon asked for. The chemistry that opens the section is genuine period science: oenanthic ether had been identified as the compound behind Cognac's distinctive aroma, and once a flavour has been named and analysed, the next step in a trade manual is always synthesis. The reference to the "bed-bug aroma so much prized by the French manufacturers" is probably not a joke at the reader's expense; it seems to have been used as a tasting term of the day, apparently describing the sharp, faintly buggy top note that old brandy and certain anise preparations are said to share. What makes these pages historically interesting is how frankly they are written: there is no pretence that the result is brandy in any sense but the drinker's, and the honest label the author keeps repeating, without foreign liquor, tells you exactly what problem the American trade was solving.