Jellies are a sort of dried fruit juice. Many fruits contain a substance called pectin or pectose, which forms, when heated with sugar, a gelatinous mass that will keep for a long time if put in a cool and dry place.

Substitute jellies and jams are abundant on all markets, for they can be sold at a profit at a price which brings them within the means of all, and in most cases they furnish a wholesome variety and add a needed flavor to a monotonous diet.

According to law these mixtures are to be labeled for what they are, so that no one need be deceived. Perhaps right here the author's suggestion of a high school museum, showing the characteristics of the local market, may be emphasized. A case in the hallway or some other convenient place where all the pupils may spend a few idle moments any day in reading the labels and familiarizing themselves with the appearance of pure and adulterated goods will do more than any one thing toward the enforcement of legal restrictions. As has been said repeatedly, it is ignorance which has permitted such a state of things as has been revealed in certain quarters. The Kansas Bulletin just quoted describes a brand of "compounded" preserves:

"On the label, which is covered as much as possible by the word Columbia, appears this statement: Twentyfive per cent selected fruit, thirty-one per cent apple juice, thirty-seven per cent corn syrup, six per cent granulated sugar. This sample is colored with coal tar dye, preserved with sodium sulphite, and sweetened with glucose.""

Find out from your state bulletins which are the

best brands on your markets, and do not try every new thing that you see advertised.

The extension of these various processes for keeping perishable food for months and for transporting it hundreds and even thousands of miles has been so great a boon to explorers, to prospectors in the mountains, to dwellers in the desert, to campers and vacationists, to the housewife with unexpected company, that the good far outweighs the evil of a few spoiled cans, even of occasional preservatives.

TH

CHAPTER XI

CONDIMENTS

MUSTARD

HE mustard of commerce is the seed of the plant Sinapis, of different species, ground into flour. It belongs to one of the most useful families of our temperate zone, the Mustard family (Cruciferæ). It is a hardy plant, and grows very readily in our climate. The famous Durham mustard was originally made from the wild charlock (Sinapis arvensis), which grew abundantly around Durham and has a pleasant, mildly pungent flavor. The name is still retained as a trade-mark. The charlock grows as a weed in our wheat fields and furnishes a product known in the trade as Dakota mustard. Along the coast of Ireland the fields, as seen from the passing steamer, look yellow with the blossoms of the wild charlock, or Charlie, as it is familiarly called. Black and white mustard are the two kinds usually found in the market, the seeds of Sinapis nigra and Sinapis alba. Since the whole seeds are to be had, the best way to study the condiment is to purchase some seeds and grind them. Several points of difference between this undoubtedly pure article and that which is bought ground will be noticed.

In the first place the ground seeds have much oil. This is not the pungent, volatile oil (Allyl sulphocya

nide) which gives the flavor, but a bland, fixed oil which is always expressed from the seeds before they are manufactured into mustard. Next the color of the pure mustard will attract attention. There is no mustard of a bright yellow color, the brightest possible color being a dull yellow. The bright yellow of the shops is either largely rape seed or artificially colored to suit a popular taste. Another noticeable difference is in the pungent smell and taste of the home-ground article. If such mustard is used for a time that of the shops seems very insipid.

Mustard is one of the most universal and wholesome condiments, but its use in medicine is even more important. It is of the utmost consequence to have a genuine article when it is to be used as an active remedy in sudden illness. The balance of life and death may depend upon the quality of the mustard used for the emetic, the plaster, or the bath. Every housekeeper should see that her medicine chest is supplied with pure mustard, whatever may be the quality of that in her spice box.

The adulterations are many. Probably two-thirds of the mustard sold is anything but pure ground seeds. The principal ingredients are starch from wheat, rice, or corn flour, turmeric to color the too white starch, rape seed, old turnip and radish seed unfit for planting, linseed, etc.

Of thirty samples examined in the laboratory of the writer, twenty-one contained more or less starch. Hardly any seeds of Cruciferæ contain starch; hence its presence is a proof of adulteration. The blue or

dark purple color which iodine causes in starch grains and the thickening in boiling water are the simplest tests. In eleven samples turmeric was added. This is readily detected by the microscope, as are also the other seeds. The per cent of oil may be used to determine the relative strengths of a number of samples, since it is upon the volatile, pungent oil that the peculiar properties of mustard depend.

PEPPER

Peppercorns are the berries of the plant Piper nigrum, which grows only in tropical climates. Hassall says that Malabar, Penang, and Sumatra are the three kinds most prized. Black and white pepper are from the same plant, the only difference being that black pepper is the whole berry dried while green, while the white, after ripening, has been deprived of the husk or outer layer of the berry, which is black. White pepper is milder than the black, for the husks are quite pungent The best is that from the whole berry. A good way to secure pure pepper is to use a little mill on the table, and to grind the whole berries as wanted. The active properties of pepper depend upon three substances: about 16 per cent of acrid resin and piperine, and 1 to 2 per cent of volatile oil.

The adulteration of pepper is extensive. Indeed it is the exception rather than the rule to find a pure article in the market. Wheat flour, ground rice, Indian meal, husks of the London-made white pepper, husks of mustard, nutshells, charcoal, peas, poppy seeds, exhausted pepper and the mysterious "P. D." pepper