On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 1450

Vinegar Vinegar is alcohol’s fate, the natural sequel to an alcoholic fermentation.. But there are a few important and ubiquitous exceptions: bacteria that can use oxygen to metabolize a

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Vinegar

Vinegar is alcohol’s fate, the natural sequel to

an alcoholic fermentation Alcohol makes a liquid more resistant to spoilage because most microbes can’t tolerate it But there are a few important and ubiquitous exceptions: bacteria that can use oxygen to metabolize alcohol and extract energy from it In the process they

convert it to acetic acid, which is a far more potent antimicrobial agent than alcohol, and came to be one of the most effective

preservatives of ancient and modern times Alcoholic wine thus becomes pungently acidic

wine: in French, vin aigre.

Absinthe

The most notorious herbal alcohol is absinthe, a green-tinged, anise-flavored

liqueur whose main ingredient is parts of the wormwood plant, Artemisia absinthium Wormwood has a harsh, bitter

flavor and carries an aromatic compound, thujone, that in high doses is toxic not only

to intestinal parasites and insects — hence the plant’s name — but also to the human nervous system, muscles, and kidneys Absinthe was hugely popular in late

19th-century France, and l’heure verte, “the

green hour” of the afternoon when people dripped water through a sugar cube into the absinthe and caused it to cloud up, was depicted by a number of Impressionist painters and by the young Picasso Absinthe developed a reputation for inducing convulsions and insanity, and was therefore outlawed in many countries around 1910, and replaced by simpler anise-flavored spirits Whatever toxicity wormwood had for the heavy drinker was probably exacerbated by absinthe’s high