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Salt of Tartar

distilled with it, is largely used as a flavoring ingredient. Spirit of nitric ether, or sweet spirits of nitre, as the solution or distillate is termed, is a colorless, limpid liquor, having a fragrant etherial odor, somewhat analogous to that of ripe apples, and a pungent aromatic taste. When combined with other flavors the spirit of nitric ether is used to impart aroma to various liquors, but chiefly for gin. It is a powerful diuretic, and should not be used. Alum.

Alum is a white salt possessing a sweetish astringent taste. It dissolves between fourteen and fifteen times its weight of cold and three-fourths of its weight in boiling water, but it is insoluble in alcohol or brandy.

Alum, when combined with salt of tartar, is extensively used for clarifying liquors, particularly gin. (See "Recipes" 11 and 12.) Roche alum is so called because it originally came from Rocca, in Syria. It usually comes in fragments about the size of a hickory nut, and has a pale rose color. This species of alum is preferred for fining purposes.

Salt of Tartar.

Salt of tartar is the pure carbonate of potassa, obtained from the bi-carbonate or cream of tartar, and differs from the same salt procured from pearl-ash in containing no impurities. This is somewhat difficult to procure, as most shops do not keep it, and at present this name is usually applied to any pure carbonate of potassa, without reference to its mode of preparation. Salt of tartar when combined with alum is used for fining gin and other liquors.

For ORRIS ROOT, LIQUORICE ROOT, OIL OF BITTER AL- MONDS, and ACETIC ETHER, see "Brandy Flavors."