The Chemistry of CookeryWilliams, W. Mattieu (William Mattieu)
Science
The Chemistry of Cookery
Williams, W. Mattieu (William Mattieu)
Cooking
Now let us suppose that we have a natural, unsophisticated wine.
It is evident that it is saturated with the tartrate, since only
so much argol was thrown down during fermentation as it was unable
to retain. It is further evident that if such a wine has not been
exhaustively fermented, _i.e._ if it still contains some of the
original grape-sugar, and if any further fermentation of this sugar
takes place, the capacity of the mixture for holding the tartrate in
solution becomes diminished, and a further precipitation must occur.
This precipitation will come down very slowly, will consist not merely
of pure crystals of cream of tartar, but of minute particles carrying
with it some colouring matter, extractives, &c., and thus spoiling the
brilliancy of the wine, making it more or less turbid.
But this is not all. Boiling water dissolves ⅙th of its weight of cream
of tartar, cold water only 1/180th, and, at intermediate temperatures,
intermediate quantities. Therefore, if we lower the temperature of a
saturated solution, precipitation occurs. Hence, the sickening of wine
due to change of cellars or change of climate, even when no further
fermentation occurs. The lighter the wine, _i.e._ the less alcohol it
contains naturally, the more tartrate it contains, and the greater the
liability to this source of sickness.
This, then, is the temporary sickness to which I have referred. I
have proved the truth of this theory by filtering such sickened wine
through laboratory filtering paper, thereby rendering it transparent,
and obtaining on the paper all the guilty disturbing matter. I found
it to be a kind of argol, but containing a much larger proportion of
extractive and colouring matter, and a smaller proportion of tartrate
than the argol of commerce. I operated upon rich new Catalan wine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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