Use Vinegar Sparingly.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXIII, Issue XXIV, 10 December 1904, Page 64

Use Vinegar Sparingly.

Vinegar is one of the common condiments wlrch is useful, perhaps, in small quantities, but certainly injurious if taken too freely. A dinner salad, with two tablespoons of vinegar for six persons, is a good proportion. Vinegar, sp ees, in fact all substances, which in themselves preserve food materials, hinder digestion. A little acid, a verylittle, will sometimes prevent rapid unnatural fermentation n the stomach, giving time for a weak digestion to assert itself. This habit, however, if continued for any length of time, will increase the digestive trouble by constantly aiding rather than strengthening the gastric secretions. The stomach acid is mild and very eas ly overpowered by either strong alkalis or acids. Pickles preserved in vinegar are always to be condemned. They create an appetite by irritating the stomach, and, if continued, provoke gastr’c indigestion. Salads, where but a small quantity of vinegar is used, are the best conveyors of this condiment. Home-made vinegars are strong with acetic acid and have no virture over

good manufactured vinegars except in flavouring. Apple imparts an agreeable aroma, w-hich makes a pleasant and apparently mild flavour. Grape vinegar, made by adding yeast or “mother” to

an uncooked, sweetened grape juice, is excellent, and with a tarragon flavour is one of the best salad seasonings. The sweet pickle has no advantage over the sour one. Sugar, added to vinegar, makes it pass the palate more easily, but both enter the stomach as they originally were—the sugar as sugar, the vinegar as vinegar. There is no combinaton of neutralization of either. The perfectly natural palate refuses all very hot, bitter, sour or flat foods. But to meet our artificial cravings we overlook this fact and cover or disguise our likings that they may. pass unnoticed. We cannot, however, deceive the stomach, and consequently we pay a heavy penalty.