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This page directs the use of hazardous substances — such as benzine, gasoline, lye, or strong acids — for household tasks. These materials are highly flammable, corrosive, or poisonous, and the practices described have caused fires, burns, and poisonings.
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To Remove Acidity in Wine
begin shortly to deposit, and improve in flavor; and even the rawest wine of this kind, by placing the bottle in water, and boiling it, may be made in the course of a day to assume the quality which it would have had after many years' keeping. In the island of Madeira wine is commonly boiled, and the same treatment is applied to Port. In Spain, brown Sherry undergoes the same process.
To Give a Body to Wine.
Gum Arabic is the best substance for giving a body to wine. One pound of this gum dissolved in hot water will improve 60 gals. of wine.
To Clean a Foul, Sour Cask, and Restore the Taste of the Wood.
In order to accomplish this, dissolve about 1½ lbs. of lime in 5 gals. of boiling water. Rinse the cask to be restored with this liquid, and afterwards with boiling water. If the cask is very foul, it should also be rinsed with very dilute sulphuric acid after the lime water, and afterwards with boiling water. As a general thing, however, the lime water and boiling water are sufficient. To restore the natural taste of the wood: mash up in a mortar a handful of juniper berries and put them in the tainted cask, then pour over them several gallons boiling water, roll the cask violently, and set it first on one end, and then upon the other.
To Remove Acidity in Wine by the Use of Lime.
The improvement of wine by the moderate use of lime is highly recommended by M. Battilliat, a celebrated French wine-maker. Use from 2 to 1 drachm pulverized lime to each gallon of wine; this quantity will be sufficient