Page:Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management.djvu/1686

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Ingredients.—Sloes, good unsweetened gin, loaf sugar.

Method.—Fill a wide-necked bottle with sloes, pour over them as much gin as the bottle will hold, then cork securely, and allow the ingredients to stand for 10 days. Strain off the liquid, remove the fruit, replace with fresh sloes, and pour on the gin, adding more spirit if necessary. Let it stand for 10 days longer, then strain, add from 4 to 6 ozs. of sugar to each pint of liqueur, and bottle for use.

Soda Water as known in every-day life is a misnomer, as the fluid now contains really no soda, only carbonic acid gas. For medicinal purposes, however, the chemist still manufactures a water containing the amount of soda prescribed by the official Pharmacopoeia Britannica. But for ordinary drinking purposes a pure water is made to absorb carbonic acid gas, which gives it effervescence, a pleasantly piquant flavour, and a slightly laxative effect. Various means are adopted to permeate the water with the gas. For domestic purposes the gasogene is generally used. This takes the form of two glass globes covered with netting and connected by a metal neck, screwing in two parts, and provided with a tap. The lower globe is partly filled with chemicals, usually tartaric acid and bicarbonate, while the upper is filled with water. The water drips through a pipe into the lower globe, and on coming into contact with the chemicals, carbonic acid gas is gradually formed, and this is steadily taken up by the water as it falls slowly downwards. This water is removed by syphon action by means of the tap. Of recent years several other aerating devices have been manufactured for domestic purposes, and in which carbonic acid is used in a gaseous form. Another development is the provision of carbonic acid in liquid form, imprisoned in metallic capsules; this liquid carbonic acid is passed into a bottle of water, wine, or other fluid through a patent tap, and the pressure being reduced is quickly converted into gas, aerating the fluid. Commercially, soda water is manufactured by admitting carbonic acid gas into a copper globe, into which water is run, and the whole thoroughly agitated. If desired, a dose of soda or other salts, such as seltzer, lithia, seidlitz, etc., may be added; or, on drawing off the soda water from the agitator, lemonade or syrups can be mixed with it. Syrups consist of fairly thick boiled sugar and water, to which fruit juice or essence is added. A good recipe for lemonade is: sugar, 14 lbs.; tartaric acid, 1 oz.; citric acid, 1½ ozs.; essence of lemon, 2 drachms, mixed with 1 gallon of water aerated with carbonic acid gas. This is sufficient for about 12 dozen bottles. Carbonic acid gas is supplied in heavy steel tubes, which are fitted with valve taps, to enable the gas to be admitted to any form of aerating machine.