This was about 50 pages (which shrank to 15,400 words) and a head wrecker to translate because the context is so alien. I do not think I have time to edit it, but it will provide background to the culture that built the Grand Arôme Arraks. They didn’t exactly come out of nowhere.
ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS.
ANALECTA ON BROMATOLOGICAL AREA. I. [food science]
By
A. G. VORDERMAN,
Inspect, burg. medicine. service for Java and Madoera.
(With two plates).
Under the title of the above, I hope that the fragments that have been collected will be published in the area of the doctrine of foodstuffs, and specifically of foods or stimulants on Java and Madura in use.
These analecta join an essay of my hand, appearing in Part XXV of this journal and published as: “Catalog of some Chinese and Inland foodstuffs from Batavia.”
From the very nature of the matter, the handling of articles in this catalog must be concise. The original piece nevertheless gave an indication of the submission for the Amsterdam colonial exhibition of 1883.
My present employment, where it is a point of research during my travel visits, allows me to spread the knowledge of the Chinese and Inland foodstuffs and to examine further details.
However, a systematic reading of these foods was not expected. To this end, the data are still too scarce.
When this publication, which I hope to prosecute, diffuses light on Chinese and Inland aliments or stimulants and sometimes their decay, then the effort spent on the research will be more than appreciated by me.
Just as before, Mr. W. P. Groeneveldt, honorary advisor for Chinese affairs, took care for the correct transcription of Chinese characters, which now and then appear in the text.
1. Béh-ko.
The béh-ko, which is introduced by the Chinese on Java, forms a semi-transparent thick and extremely sticky gum-like mass. The color is light brown and the taste sweet with a little bit of spicy flavor. In addition, she possesses the variety of impure cane syrup.
The preparation of this article, however primitive it may seem, is interesting, because it is clear that the Chinese are familiar with the characteristic of the diastase to convert starch into dextrin and sugar.
Although in this preparation barley, imported from China, is used and this type of grain is preferred, I still found béh-ko-manufacturers, who used ordinary brown rice grains (gabba) instead of barley. The cereal grains are now spread out in a thick layer on tetampas (1), placed on shelves in a cool, shaded place, and soaked with water at regular intervals until the barley has sprouted. Already on the fourth day the young spouts reach a length of 3 to 4 feet. They are colored greenish yellow and the cereal grains are joined to a sanitary paste by swelling and the sprouting of the carrots (radiculae).
(1) Tetampa (Malayan) means a large circle-shaped piat board, made of nit cave braid made of thin strips of bamboo split into thin strips, which is closely joined together. The board is equipped with a little height, solid, upstanding bamboo edge.
At that time, are considered suitable for the béh-ko preparation.
To this end, the contents of the tetampas are crushed with hot water in a leloempang (1), creating a thick slurry. This mash is mixed with another, obtained by steaming clean-washed white glutinous rice (ketan, oryza gelutinosa), steaming with hot water and allowing it to act for several hours.
The ratio of the two main ingredients is that 6 kadi (2) of barley comes on 10 gantangs of sticky rice.
If the sprouted barley grains (the malt), which is desirable, are processed into slurry in the aforementioned manner at 5 o’clock in the aforementioned manner, sticky rice must already be steamed the previous evening in order to make the process most profitable.
The further preparation is the following. The mushy mixture of the two species is put in a karong (3), which is firmly tied and around which rings of woven bamboo are applied to prevent the bag with its contents from becoming too flat during subsequent pressing.
(1) A block consisting of a solid piece of wood in which a half-convex floor has been drilled out. A heavy cylindrical stick, called aloe, serves as a pestle.
(2) A gantang is a measure for dry goods, which is 8.5766 liters. A katti is a commercial weight of 0.617 kilos of weight.
(3) Raw processed sacks of jute or other raw material, which generally serve as packaging for some products, and are also known under the name of goose bags.
The karong, which contains the mixture, is now placed on a bench, on which a wooden board is placed with a trench and drain.
A strand of woven bamboo is stretched around the end of the bank and serves as a support for a solid thick stick, which is placed across the stuffed karong and serves to press out the contents. The karong from above is still burdened with a square shelf to evenly propagate the pressure. The far protruding free part of the stick serves to exert force and to separate the liquid content of the karong from the solid components by pressure.
This primitive installation thus acts as a lever of the second kind.
The pressure arises, because a fat Chinese man settles on the free end and stays there quietly until no more liquid flows from the bag along the drainage channel into the bucket underneath.
This liquid, which with such a pressure gradually comes out through the meshes of the karong, is cloudy gray-white and tastes sweet. It is called “tan pian” in Chinese and, after being collected, it is put in a large iron evaporator, under which fire is fired.
The liquid begins to boil, where the resulting foam is removed. When the water threatens to boil over, the Chinese sprinkles the cooking with a little water and then is diligently busy with a large fan. In the meantime, the remainder of the contents of the karong have been mixed with cold water and allowed to work for an hour, after which the karong is filled again and the pressing process is repeated. This second press, that when one has started at the time indicated above, is ready at 10 o’clock in the morning, some of the leavens smell slightly (1) and tastes sweet.
(1) The juice, which runs out of the cut flower stem of the Saguerus saccharifer and is collected in bamboo boxes.
It is added to the already-boiling first press and the ensemble is allowed to cook through until late at night, as when the contents of the evaporator boiler have turned into a brownish, syrupy mass, which is hot, but in cooled condition, it is thick and difficult to handle.
At around 0.40 katti, this product, the béh-ko, is bought by Chinese people, who roam around the streets or do the preparation of teng-teng, about which later.
The residue in the karong serves as pig feed.
The process of béh-ko-preparation, which has been followed in ancient times in China, is thus entirely based on the reputation of the property of the diastase-containing malt-press to convert starch to dextrin.
Béh-ko will therefore mainly consist of maltose and dextrin, partly converted into glucose.
Just as in the European beer breweries, the malt is prepared by the Chinese from germinated barley grains, but the European considers the germination sufficiently, if the leaf sprouts have a length of one and a half times the length of the grain and if the root germ has sprouted, the Chinese consider this is insufficient and wait for the leaf sprouts to be 3 to 4 ctm. high.
The royal flavor of the second press will be due to the formation of acetic acid or other acids as a by-product.
Béh-ko occurs several times as an adjuvant in the Inland recipe and is unmixed by some of the cloths, he recommended chronic bronchial catarrhs. Processed into spheres that, in order to prevent them from sticking together, are covered with starch, it is circled around the streets and replaces the Dutch so-called “chunks” or “babbleers”. The Indian youth is a loyal customer of the Chinese béh-ko shop keeper, who has colored the product fuchsia and blows it up in various wooden shapes, such as fruits, birds, etc., by means of a tube and thus delivers.
Mr. W. P. Groeneveldt mentioned that a béh-ko variety, imported from Singapore by many opium farmers, is used to dilute prepared opium before it is consumed.
2. Lik taō. [Chin.]
Katjang ldjoe. [Mal.]
Katjang-idjoe are the seeds of the Phaseolus radiatus L., called Rumphius Phaseolus minimus, which is grown everywhere in Southeast Asia as a food crop.
There is no Chineesche warong in the larger places of Java, or piles of these beans are found, which, however, are used almost exclusively by Chinese and Natives for food; at least I have not seen the use of these beans in the kitchens of Europeans.
In the Company’s time this was different, judging from what Rumphius reports on this (1), and that for curiosity follows:
(1) Rumphius, Herbarri Amboinensis, Liber IX, Cap XXX, pag. 386.
These small green katjang are much more common among the Javanese, and more common than the red ones, from which all ships were also supplied, sailing in lndiē. They are more dignified than the big ones, they give a better food, and they are not so windy, it is a wonder that they can be cooked much worse on board, and better, as on land, if the brine is put in there, where on land they often became tougher, which I did not attribute to the ship, but the knowledge of the cooks, who on board cook a large crowd at once in her large kettles, namely the Katjang alone, and the salty meat also only until it is cooked by both relatives, and then first to do the same, which the native cooks on land so carefully do not observe.
They were kept healthier than all the other Beans, being admitted in many diseases, so that many such medicines are also cooked there, prepared for some illnesses, in particular in the Indian fury, or Beri-beri. In order to drive out the Amboin smallpox (1), they are used every day in the cost, in the proper way, as courts of the red Bean is said.
(1) Framboesia.
These beans boiled up in warm water, were wiped between the hands, destiny that all the scales go off, and then first beaten to the thigh with a short sop.
Here they became much more worse, almost like a breezy, and not windy, animal matches called the Latin Fabas refas. [wow, lost in translation]
Cooks do ordinarij Parsley, and Ajuin, but the natives alderhande green herbs, which they otherwise use to Sajor, and Moes, with a much longer zop, as we commit, which I consider healthier, because the Katjang on his ship boiled must be thick like a broth, to fill that groove of people her stomachs, by necessarily having to be a dash of Vinegar and Pepper, which then makes a nice feast, but uses the thick substance of that friar so often, if one does there, can not but make thick blood, which by the floating force of the Katjang, and heat of the Peppers lightly sweating, and there by common a dry scabies occurs, which one in Indiē Coerab, being quizzical Herpes, listens stubbornly to heal, as she once roots up, where the ship’s population is much contaminated, but those who work a lot, have been able to dilute this good blood and consume it. [some more things get lost in translation. I’m not sure if this is from an older Dutch dialect.]
This reasoning of Rumphius about the working of the beans for what it was, I share, that according to Dr. Lōbe’s Lexicon der Landwirdschaft, the chemical composition of katjang-idjoe, originating from Java, the following is:
Eiwitstoffen 30
Koolhydraten 42.25
Vet. 1.25
Houtvezel 15.5
Asch 3
Water 8
—
100.
This shows that the katjang-idjoe is worthy to be included in our European menus.
Description. They are small, somewhat cylindrical beans, the color of which varies between yellow-green, grass-green and blackish-green, with a length of about 4 millimeters. All possess a raphe corresponding to the separation of cotyledons, and a white nodule surrounded by a dark edge. The raphe comes out first when they are soaked.
The tissue of the cotyledons mainly consists of fine-walled, hyaline, polygonal parenchymal cells in which the starch granules are accumulated.
Grinded to flour, after having been stripped of the green casings, there is a preparation in the trade under the name tepong katjang-idjoe.
3. Taōgê. [Chineesch].
Togee. [Bataviaasch Maleisch]
By taōgê are meant the bean sprouts, created by the germination of the katjang-idjoe described under 3.
Whereas, however, when the béh-ko is prepared, the malt is produced by the germination of the halves, and the radicules remain very small, so the opposite is the case with the germination of the katjang-idjoe, as here the radicula develops first and the fastest , and the process aims precisely at the development of these carrot sprouts.
Every day taōgê is made in large quantities in Batavia by Chinese people, who sell these sprouts along the streets for sale or sell them to the taipes. In the first case it is sometimes bought to serve in the preparation of the countless varying ingredients of the rice table, in the second case it is, prepared for food, sold by the above-mentioned asparagus along the roads.
Making taōgê is very simple. Katjang-idjoe, some empty petroleum drums and a well make all the material.
The beans are spread out in a thick layer, after being pre-soaked and selected, on the bottom of an empty petroleum crate and moistened with water (tiramisu). This siramation takes place six times per 24 hours for three to four days. After the humidification, the box is covered airy with the shelf.
After the first day, the beans have swollen, the seed husk is already partially or completely cracked, the pale yellow seed hairs are visible and a radicula has developed of about 16 millimeters in length and at the origin point 2 millimeters thick.
After the second 24 hours the growth has progressed considerably, the seed husk of most of the already rejected and a small plumula of 2 to 3 millimeters length has been formed, while the radicula is already 4 to 4 ½ centimeters long, with a thickness at the upper part of 3 millimeters.
After the third day, additional roots start to appear and the radicula has a pointed narrow end and a lengthy fleshy white upper, while the leaves are more developed.
After the fourth day the growth has progressed to such an extent that chlorophyll begins to form in the first leaflets, the cotyledons have shrunk and large side roots have developed at the point of root sprouting. The length of the main root shoot is now 6 to 7 centimeters and the thickness is the same as during the third day, d. i. 3½ millimeters. In this state they are ready. Meanwhile, the temperature in the petroleum crates has increased significantly and has sometimes risen to 46 degrees Celsius.
The sprouts are now stripped of the adhering sperm peels in a large tub with well water, washed and delivered to the purchasers.
When, however, the process of development has been observed by the Chinese, who prepares taōgê wholesale, it will not be easy to serve the bean sprouts for food, without having previously subjected them to a cleansing cure, for how usually the courtyard of The house of a Chinese citizen is less, as dirty as those of the taōgê preparer, few are found. The open courtyard is to prevent slipping, invested with bamboos. The drawn water, with which the petroleum drums adjoining the well are doused, flows between the bamboos and partly passes through the infiltration of the floor into the well. The large tub, in which the sprouts are washed after the 4th day, contains a greyish liquid, too dirty to look at, and there is an oppressive acid-like odor of rotting organic substances, to which the half-rotting on the underside bamboo does not contribute much.
Just as the creaking of the little green katjang-idjoe in the kitchens of Europeans has disappeared, so has long been a habit of obsolescence to the hearing of sailing ships, which, especially in the time when scurvy appeared among the men, had its use. I mean making taōgê aboard these soils during the journey. That in the past work was made of this, testifies Rumphius, who in the above-mentioned book on the quotation mentioned follows the following:
The outgoing Katjang was thus made. Spray the catjang with hot water a trip or two, and then let them lay two or three days, so they bring forth white shoots, a member of a little finger long, some of whom already have green hooves, and want to form leaves. One makes a pleasant salad, or a tasty mush with some zop cooked. A costly refreshment, although one is on sea travel and can have such a fresh salad.
That the custom of traveling on board the ships was still in use at the end of the last century, is shown by a work in 1799 in Amsterdam by Smit and Holtrop published by an unnamed and entitled: “Batavia on the occasion, rise, exquisite buildings, high and low government, histories, church affairs, commerce, morals, air conditions, diseases, animals and crops, “in which this on p. 62 of Book XI. mentioned.
4. De toekang taōgé.
The bean sprouts described in the previous article are prepared at Batavians in passers-by and heavily visited settlement parlors or by road for comsumption, sold by the so-called tandem taōgé, usually an Inlander.
This man carries on the one side of his cane a carry-on chafing, in which is stoked and where a flat red copper plate is placed, while on the other side there is a square box for the stock of raw taōgé and the other inward ones.
The latter consist of taōtsióeng, a mash-like preparation of soya beans (of which later), from red coconut shallots (Allium ascalonicum L.) finely chopped leaves of the good tsai (Allium uliginosum.), Imported from China. onion type, and finely cut tjahé (Capsicum annuum L.)
The bean sprouts are steamed more than cooked with very little water on the copper plate, with the addition of the fried shallots, good tsai and tjabé.
At the election of the merchant, the portion is topped with a reddish sauce, which has been pre-cooked and prepared from the above-mentioned bean knit with the other articles.
The portion is hot-fried.
5. Hoe taō, Âng taō, O taō.
Kadelé poetih, merah. item. [Bat. Maleisch].
Licht gekleurde, bruine en zwarte soja-boontjes [Hollandsch].
The kadaré or soy bean, from Soja hispida L., are dried in large quantities commercially and come from China or from Anam. These foreign beans are intended for the preparation of various Chinese foodstuffs, and are in the past being partially displaced in Batavia by Inlandsch product from the Preangor or the Ommelanden.
The color of the light kadelé beans varies between cream color, straw yellow, light ocher yellow and amber color.
There are three color varieties of soy beans, t. w. the above light-colored, the brown and the black. The first two are roundish in shape, the last one roundish or elongated, depending on whether they originate from the one or the other variety of the plant.
The plant that it produces is named after these qualities of the beans: Soya hispida, tumida Harz or Soya hispida, platycarpa Harz, the first with roundish, the latter with elongated seeds, so that, when the color varieties are added, the following four distinctions be mentioned:
1°. Soja hispida, tumida β pallida,
2°. Soja hispida, tumida β atrosperma,
3°. Soja hispida, tnmida β castanea,
4°. Soja hispida, platycarpa β melanosperma.
The numbers 2 and 4 are black and mainly serve the ketjap or soy preparation, while the others, which are pale yellow (N ° 1) or reddish brown (N ° 3) are colored, are used for other culinary purposes.
Since 1873 especially, when at the Weener World Exhibition various samples of soya bean, originating from Japan, China and India, occurred, the chemical analysis has revealed the great nutritional value through richness of nitrogen-bearing components and fat, and has the culture of soybean plant in Europe entrance found (1) König announces, according to Edw. Kinsch the soya trees, originating from different countries, almost all have the same percentage ratio of components.
1) Zie König. De Menschliche Nahrungs und Genussmittel. 2te Auflage, Theil II, pag. 372.
I will take some analyzes about this, occurring in König 1. c. 1 ° part.
The soy beans show a light brown navell.
I have not been able to detect starch in the dried kernel beans of Java, China or Anam by applying the iodine reaction to the diameter of the beans. The main component of the cotyledon tissue consists of elongated radially stretched parenchymal cells approximately five times as long as wide.
6. Taō-hōe [Chineesch].
The taō-hōe and taō-koan consist of leguminous cheese, obtained from the light-colored soya beans.
To this end preferably those which are imported from Annam, but nowadays, there are already many Chinese who prefer the cheap price at the kadelé, from the Preanger or the Ommelanden.
The light-colored soy beans are soaked in river water for 5 hours. Then they are swollen up to 2 or 3 times their original volumes. After being stripped of any impurities or blends, they arrive in a stone handmill, not unlike that, with which the Europeans grind paint. A Chinese stirs the mill, while another is busy pouring the soaked beans with skin and all and with some water from above into the tool.
As a white thin knit, the product runs from the grinder along a gutter into a ready-made barrel.
This knit is heated over a large open barrel of iron until the mass is well cooked. The foam is scooped off and the water is filtered through a cotton cloth after cooking. Within the cloth, a white doughy mass is retained, which has a unique oily odor, which residue of the preparation is sold as duck or chicken feed.
The water that has seeped through and has a milky white color is mixed with a certain part by weight of Madoereesch salt, or with a little bit of burnt plaster.
This gypsum comes from China as a radiant gypsum and is supplied in large blocks. Since she has to serve soya beans especially for the production of legume cheese, she is called batoe taō in Batavia. [more knowledge of plastering? hmm.]
Both the salt and the gypsum change the moisture into a white, gelatinous mass by precipitating the legumine, which has a certain consistency with complete cooling, enough to be cut into square pieces in flat layers. However, this can not be done within two hours after precipitation. Placed on banana leaves and cut into pieces of ± 1 dm. length, 7 ctm. width and 2 ctm. height, they are covered with a white cotton cloth and, in that condition, are circled along the streets.
Their taste is not pleasant, a real raw bean flavor, but mixed with side dishes the unpleasant is lost.
Both in the preparation of many Chinese dishes as in the Indian rice table taō how is observed.
To ensure an untouched condition for the preparation for a longer period, a procedure is followed, whereby taō koâ is created.
7. Taō-koan.
By cutting the aforementioned tōa-hōe into flat square cakes and dipping them into a decoction of koenjit rhizome (Curcuma longa L), they get an intense yellow color on the outside. The yellow biscuits are then folded into white cotton square cloths, placed under shelves and with a secure pressure on the outside. Normally Chinese characters are also printed on that occasion. [decoction may not be the correct word. are they deep fried?]
Many water parts are lost during the printing process, but on the other hand, these biscuits can be stored longer than the tōa-hōe fragments. These vegetable cheeses, which are colored yellow on the outside, are also produced and consumed in large quantities, both by Chinese and Natives, and by colored people.
In the diet regulation of weak Indian children, both tōa-hōe and taō-kōan can serve as surrogates, when the children refuse to use eggs, which is often the case here. In my former practice I have successfully served myself. Taō-kōan is also imported from China in the dry state.
The cakes from China are much larger and flatter and always provided with Chinese inscriptions.
In addition, their surface is darker in color than the here prepared and also greasy, while their consistency is very tough. [they do not ship well!]
According to König, analyzed. Edw Kinsch de Tofu (read taō foe) (1) and found it in the prepared preparation:
(1)The Kéh Chinese people pronounce the name as tao foe.
89% water,
5% N. containing constituents,
3.4% fat,
2.1% N. free extract dyes,
and 0.5% ash;
while at the chemical composition of taō-koan op pag. 375 van König 1. c. sub 4, 2de alinea als » Desgl. gefroren”
mentioned:
18.7% water,
48.5% N. containing constituents,
28.5% fat,
2.6% N. free extract dyes,
and 1.7 % ash.
Most likely, the composition of the final preparation corresponds to that of the leguminous cheese cakes imported from China here, but in no case with that of the taō koan prepared here, which in addition to a less water content must correspond to the taō-hōe.
8. Tsióe piáng. [Kheh Chineesch].
Péh khak. [Foekjen Chineesch].
Ragi. [Maleisch].
White mealy bulbs flattened on both sides, of about 3 ctm. midline, used as a yeast material and offered for sale all along the passars and in the Chinese warongs. The preparation is of Chinese origin. To this end, Buitenzorg is used:
1. Saccharum officinarum (teboe koening, Mal.) Or yellow sugar cane. From this one takes three sections, preferably from the bottom part, which contains the most sugar.
2. Alpinia galanga (Langkwas or Laos), the rhizome of a Scitamiaca, in a Chinese bowl (1) filled with pieces of broken rhizome parts.
(1) A volume capacity of about 1/4 liter in this case. Actually intended for liquids.
3. Rice flour 1/8 gantang (2)
(2) See the note on pag. 345.
4. Allium sativum L. (bawang poetih), garlic, the bulbs of 3 plants.
5. Citrus limonellus Hack (djerok-nipis) or so-called limes, half a fruit.
The sugar cane and the Alpinia rhizome are divided into small pieces and dried well in the sun with the rice flour, after which the four first-mentioned articles are thoroughly crushed with the addition of the lime juice and some water, until a mushy dough is created.
After three days, the coarse parts of the plant are removed, the separated water is poured off and the remaining thick mash of round balls are molded, which have the form described above and which are dried in the sun, until they have hardened.
These ragi bulbs are very fragile and will soon be eaten by insects. When a ragi-bulb is stripped of the impure outer parts, mixed in a mortar with boiled and then cooled water, until a thin slurry is formed, and this is stored in a covered glass, the slurry will split up within a short time in a white sediment and a clear liquid. After a few hours, liquid bubbles begin to form at the edge of the surface, which gradually increase. Only after 1 to 2 days has the fermentation begun to such an extent that the entire surface of the water is absorbed by a tough foam in which white, sticky islands float.
Microscopically, there are remnants of vegetable parts, rice starch grains, a large number of coccians and bacteria, but also a kind of small cells, which are the size of the rice starch grains and in iodine reaction, where they are colored yellow, stand out sharply against the angular, blue colored amylum grains. Furthermore, there are some large globular cells with turbid dark brown contents and hyaline cell wall, as well as thin fragments of mycelial threads. Figure I, A gives an image of it under the microscope.
9. Tsao [Chineesch].
Tapej [Maleisch].
There are two forms of tapej, depending on whether this substance serves foodstuff or for technical purposes, such as in the preparation of rice wine, arrak, or in indigenous cooking in a Chinese way.
In the first form it is a preparation of rice, glutinous rice, maize or tapioca root, to which many Natives are fond of and which is available daily in the morning on the large passars.
The unsightly preparation is sold in folded banana leaves, and is called, according to the above-mentioned main components, tapej nassi, tapej ketan, tapej djagoong or tapej ketella pohon.
The contents of such a sheet are partially solid, partly liquid. The solid part consists of the above-mentioned foods; the liquid, little in quantity, is a dirty white juice in fermentation.
The above raw yeast, ragi, is an unmistakable ingredient to the preparation. If tapej is made of ketan or nassi, then rice or glutinous rice will turn into 4 balls of ragi. 2 bulbs are sufficient for the same amount of corn, while 5 bulbs are required for just as much tapioca root.
The main ingredient is first cooked well and then, until it is completely cooled, spread on a tetampa. Then it is sprinkled with the ragi, which is finely chopped between the fingers, and intimately mixed with this substance. For the rice it is necessary that the mixing is done with a wooden spoon and not with the fingers, as in the latter case the preparation would fail, become too acidic and assume a reddish color.
When this mixture has ended, the whole is put in a clay pot in a cool place, after being covered with banana leaves.
Then a fermentation process is created, which after two days is considered sufficient to make the product consumable.
The taste is lightly sweet, not unpleasant. The better types of raw material are used for the tapej, which serves as foodstuff, but for those that are prepared for technical purposes, this is not the case. To this end, they usually serve the lesser types of common rice (Oryza sativa L.), either Siam rice, or so-called red rice from the market. So once in the tapej-juice in a arrack-producer, I found countless fragments of a Sarcoptes variety, a mite, which can occur in poor-quality rice. Plate I. fig. B. indicates the aspect of tapej juice from an arrak factory, in which clearly recognizable Saccharomyces cells.
10. Vaste brēm.
Suikerbrēm.
This article is sold in Buitenzory and at Batavia in small cylindrical tubes, or wrapped in rolls in a dried banana leaf fragment and pierced with a rice ball, in order to be able to bind them together.
In Surabaya I saw it in the form of small cone-shaped pieces.
The vaste brem is the juice of tapej, thinned by sun heat, prepared from white glutinous rice, and presents a white kneadable independence there, which is very hygroscopic, reverently tastes sweet and brings on the tongue the same cool feeling as the yeast in patria. [pastry?]
Since the preparation is only possible in sunshine, the vaste brem is made more in the Oostmousson than in the rainy season.
Vaste brem is used as an inland candy, but considered harmful for children and for adults with sensitive intestines.
White sticky rice, which is soaked in cold water overnight and then carefully cleaned of any contamination, is used for the preparation.
She is steamed in a koekoesan (1) by hot water vapors, which are developed in a dangdang (2).
(1) A koekoesan consists of a downwardly tapering. conical basket, made of split bamboo, from which the top [the base of the cone] is open.
(2) A dangdang is an Indian type of tableware, usually of beaten copper. It has a bellied lower end, which rises above the fire, while the hovering walls converge upwards to the edge.
The edge itself differs in a funnel shape. In the round opening the koekoesan is provided with cleanly washed rice, so that it does not touch the water of the dangdang, the vapors of which, when brought to the boil, steam the rice.
When rice or glutinous rice is steamed in Javanese for ordinary purposes, this process has to be stopped temporarily, in the meantime by removing the rice from the koekoesan in a heel and pouring it with boiling water, which after stirring with a wooden spoon is thrown away, then put back into the koekoesan and put it in its place over the water boiling in the dangdang until the rice is cooked.
This temporary break-down of the process of cooking steam is called “aron” in the Batavian Malay.
It should not, however, be the case if the glutinous rice has to serve the preparation of brem. Then the contents of the koekoesan will remain undisturbed until cooked.
As soon as this is the case, it is spread on a large tetampa until it has cooled down completely, after which the glutinous rice is washed with cold water and placed in a windy place outside the influence of the solar heat, until the grains are dried. It also undergoes the same treatment (sprinkling with finely blanched ragi) as in the preparation of tapej.
After standing in the pot for 3 days, the tapej formed then is pressed out, and the juice obtained therefrom sets the raw material from the vaste brem there.
In order to obtain it, this tapej-juice is laid out in flat wooden plates with rising edge (target) of great size, until the water evaporates and a thick, syrupy, white residue remains, which in small tubes of bamboo than or glagah reed (Saccharum spontaneum L.), which are closed at the bottom with a gag of the heart of the leaf stalk of the Kiraipalm (Metroxylon sagus Rottl) or of purified twisted fibers of the husk of the hops (Sabett kelapa).
These sleeves are dried with content and for so long, until it has become consistent and suitable for shipment.
In the preparation of this brem it is assumed that five ragi spheres are required for one gang of glutinous rice.
The fermentation lasts shorter here than when the goal is to prepare an alcoholic drink, such as for rice wine or liquid brem.
After the sprinkling of glutinous rice with the ragi, an Amylomyces form develops, which, like the diastase, converts the starch into grape sugar, while it is converted into alcohol by the simultaneous development of Saccharomyces forms. If this process has progressed to such an extent that the first conversion has largely taken place, it already suffices for the preparation of the vaste brem. It is still possible to make the sugary components of the tapej juice and not the later alcoholic fermentation. If some alcohol has already developed, it will be lost by evaporation when it is dried in the solar heat.
When the dry or sugar brem is mixed with sterilized water and exposed to the sun’s warmth in a covered glass, a well-developed fermentation already develops within two hours, as apart from Saccharomyces cells in the brem, there are still tissue fragments of the raw materials and amylum grains.
The Saccharomyces contained therein are smaller than those of the brewer’s yeast and they are about 2/3 of the size of the bullet cells which constitute the latter. The content of the brem Saccharomyces is also fine-grained, without, however, showing the water droplets in the protoplast. Plate I, fig С returns the microscopic image of this yeast fungus, while Fig. D. represents an Amylomyces on the left, as was found on the tapej.
11. Tsioé djîn, ló tsioé [Foekjen Chineesch].
Brēm. [Maleisch].
Vloeibare brēm
of
rijstwijn. [Hollandsch.]
There are two types of rice wine or liquid brēm, all the more as this drink is intended for Inland or for Chinese stomachs.
The way in which the Chinese make their rice wine is very simple.
When pulled from red glutinous rice mixed with white, and because the white glutinous rice (ketan poetih) provides more moisture than the red (ketan item), and the latter also gives a red shade.
Until the preparation, the sticky rice or ketan mixture is soaked in cold water for 12 hours and then washed clean to be steamed, which process takes place in the same way as if sugar brine had to be prepared, on the understanding, however, that the ketan, when cooked cooled down, once again being steamed in the koekoesan.
For one gantang ketan 8 ragi bulbs are needed to bring her to the desired fermentation. By mixing the steamed ketan with the ragi again tapej, which is put into a pot and is sealed from the outside air, is formed by a banana leaf to bind the opening. The tapej is allowed to ferment in the pot for up to 6 days, as if a liquid has separated, containing alcohol and sugar and is separated from the ketan mass by pouring and pressing into a cloth.
This rice wine tastes very pleasant, is colored pink, which color is due to the color of the red ketan, and can be kept for a long time.
Although originally turbid, a deposit of entrained grains suspended in the liquid soon forms.
Some Batavia-Chinese people drink it in this condition, others mix it half-and-half with Chinese rice alcohol and then drink it in a Chinese way from the well-known tin pans. This mixing with a little rice alcohol or with arrak is also done by the Chinese chemists, who make the rice wine in the wholesale to dispatch to the interior, and because the rice wine without such an appendix sometimes after a period of several months can get a vinegar fermentation. Often the wine is colored even more red by adding a little of an alcoholic infusion of ang-khak (about which later).
In China, the rice wine is a very popular drink.
Here is how a French traveler, Mr. Fauvel, about this exhaust. This naturalist was ordered by the Chinese government in 1879 to compose the entry for the Chinese division of the International Exhibition for Fishermen in Berlin, and to issue a report on the fishing industry of Ning po and the Chusan archipelago, as a result of which this island group traveled and did various excursions on the opposite coast of China, so that it was able to make interesting observations about the region and its products (1).
(1) Promenades d’un naturaliste dans l’arehipel des Chusan et sur les côtes du Chekiang [Chine], par Mr. Albert Auguste Fauvel. Memoires de la Societé nationale des sciences naturelles et mathématiques de Cherbourg. Tome XXII, pag. 317.
Wine of shaohsing. A fermented drink, called shaohsing chiu (shaohsing wine) named after the city of Chekiang, is also used, or the best is made. It is exported from Ning in immense quantities; it is enclosed in earthen vessels, an amphora form, and sealed with clay; it is with the hams of Kinhoua one of the most important productions of the country. There is indeed a Chinese proverb, which says that the wine of Shaohsing and the hams of Kinhoua are found in all the extent of the empire, so great is their fame.
This wine was sung by Brother Odoric, Rubruquis, Ysbrandt Idès, Father Ripa, Father Huc and many others, in the most extravagant terms. One calls it a noble drink, another says that except by smell it can not be distinguished from the best wine of Auxerre; a third compares it to Madeira. During the occupation of Ning in 1857, several French officers who tasted it, declared that it must be Sauterne, which their native servants had stolen from Europeans. This wine is always drunk hot and for this purpose it is served in small tin teapots, which are always kept at tea temperature. During a month-long trip to Chekiang province, I’ve only had this wine and have always found it excellent. There are different qualities because it gets better with age, so the one we serve in good houses is always known simply as laō chiu “old wine”. The manufacture of this drink dates back, it is said, to the most remote times. Although of inferior quality, that which one drinks in the houses of the sinners is very good. It has sometimes been tried to bring in Europe, unfortunately it does not support travel and heat spoils it. It is low in alcohol, while sorghum alcohol is so strong that it can be compared rather to the spirit of wine. This alcohol called kaoliang chiu (wine of kaoliang) measures indeed, when it is pure, 90 degrees at the hydrometer. It was in a barrel of this spirit that I brought back, in perfect condition of preservation, the fish of which I spoke above. This country also produces brandy, distilling sweet potatoes reduced to fermented pulp with the addition of water.
Although the Chinese drink a lot of alcohol, they abuse them so seldom that I have only seen two drunken men during a stay of one and a half years in this country. [all translated from French]
When the rice wine is destined for native consumption here in Batavia or Buitenzorg, its preparation is more composed by the addition of a decoction of the following spices:
1: tjenké, the common clove (Caryophyllus aromaticus L.),
2: kayak manis tjina, licorice root (Liquiritia glabra L. or Liq.echinata),
3: pala, nutmeg (Myristica fragrans),
4: lada poetih, white pepper (Piper nigrum L.),
5: tjabé djawa (the fruit of the Chavica densa Miq),
6: djabi pait, bitter ginger (Zingiber officinale p amarum L.),
7: mansoei, the so-called mass bastard (Sassafras goesianum Teysm. & Binn),
8: poetjoek (the root of the Auclandia costus Fale), a plant from Cashmere, whose dried roots are exported to China in large quantities, to serve both medical and culinary use. From China, this article is entered on Java.
These spices are mixed together in small quantities, crushed, evenly chopped, and mixed with the tapej, the tapej being removed from 6 days to a month and a half, before the resulting liquid, the rice wine, is extracted by expression and subsequent filtration. Some brem-preparers add even more aromatics, even parts of the edible bird nests, to also give reinforcing properties to the brem, they think. The shorter the process lasts, the sweeter is the product, which after a long time has stood, a more alcoholic beverage. It will be ensured that the juice is not touched with the fingers.
This seasoned native rice wine tastes like a bishop, but is as stubborn as port wine. A full wine bottle here costs 0.50 in Buitenzorg.
Of the molds of microorganisms, which I prepared with the rice wine, prepared in Chinese fashion, plate I. sub D. gives a picture. The Saccharomyces form on the right is collected from the moisture; the forms on the left, including an Amylomyces, were found on the glutinous rice mass in fermentation.
12. Arak.
What Batavia or Java arrak, which for the consumer looks familiar enough: a colorless or pale yellow tinted alcoholic drink with a unique, unspeakable smell and spiciness.
The arrak of native production, which is sold in the warongs or elsewhere under the name spirits or “arak api” and does not serve for consumption, is also mixed with wood spirit or turpentine oil, which both dominate the smell of the arrak, and the first of which communicates a darker shade.
How the arrak is prepared, however, appears to be unprecedented in Europe, to judge what is said about it in works such as: König, Nahrungs-mittel, or Klemens Mercks, Waren-Lexicon.
The Batavian arrak has traditionally been the best in Europe in terms of its peculiar aroma.
The price is therefore higher than that of the arrak, which comes from the coastal towns, and this difference is high enough for the Batavian vinegar manufacturers to summon the arrak which they need to prepare their product from the worst.
The arrak preparation on Batavia is entirely in the hands of Chinese, who have been following their method for centuries.
The molasses (syrup, which remains in the sugar factories after separation of the crystallizable sugar) serves as the raw material for the arak preparation in Java.
The alcoholic fermentation is generated by adding rice paste after the raw material has been diluted with water.
In very rare cases the raw material is fermented by dilution with water and simultaneous addition of gaba (paddi granules).
The arrak preparation, as I observed it at Batavia, comes down to the following:
The raw materials are molasses, river water in rice paste. The process starts with cooking the rice. The rice, which is customary, is of the least quality (see page 362.) In one or more large iron pots of hemispherical shape, which have been bricked up above a stove, the rice is boiled with water (not steamed), until it is well cooked. Then it is removed from the pans and spread into a thin layer on large tetampas (see page 344). After cooling, ragi is sprinkled on it, the balls of which are finely rubbed with the fingers, after which they are stirred with wooden spoons after a few hours and then put into barrels, which cylindrical barrels have a bottom, provided with round holes, in order for tapej juice to run off. They are filled 2/3 and the contents are covered with a karong. The tapej juice is collected in a flat tub and bought by vinegar makers in sufficient quantity to be processed into Inland vinegar.
For two days the tapej will continue to pass through in the barrels, in which a temperature rise is observed, and only thereafter is it judged suitable to be transferred to a barrel which is in the open air and in which a mixture of molasses with river water has been brought beforehand. This mixture has the familiar dark brown color.
On the first day, the mass of tapej continues to permeate through it, but is otherwise unmixed in the cylinder.
The second day, which it spends in the open air, it is well mixed with the surrounding molasses water and transfused into another tun of larger capacity, where molasses has already been mixed in with water beforehand, so that the same amount of nutrient liquid starter is now on a larger scale. Nevertheless, fermentation already occurs here.
First the third day, so after this mixture of tapej and molasses water stood for two days in the open air, where it was protected from rain by mats only, this “batter”, as it is called, merges into the yeast tubs or bins, two large tubs, placed inside the house or under a shelter next to each other and above the edges of which a third colossal tub is placed in the middle, the “extension pit”. The latter involves a mixture of molasses with lukewarm water, the latter obtained from the cooling tub of the boiler, which served to cool the metal condenser. After the batter has been transferred from the outside into the yeast tubs, these are further filled by the opening of two drain pipes, which are arranged in the bottom of the scald tub, through which the contents drain and mix with the fermenting batter.
In this, this batter continues to ferment for 4 days.
This fermentation is very intense, especially towards the end of the time that the batter spends in these bins. A reddish-brown foam floats between the rice fragments and the surrounding dark brown liquid, and already at some distance you can see a honey smell and you can clearly hear the hissing and poisoning that arises from the rising and surface of the thousands of small carbonic bubbles.
After expiry of the above-mentioned time, the tapej remnants are removed and the brown moisture is scooped into small, ready, tapered, earthen pots of about ten liters, stacked in rows in one another, in which the intense top fermentation soon ceases and is followed by one weak secondary fermentation. Eight days later, the brown liquid remains, the time required before it is ready to be distilled off.
It is now transferred (charged) and heated (stoked) in a coarse boiler. This charging is effected by pouring it into thick bamboo cookers, which lead to the hole under an inclined plane, which is arranged at the top of the boiler and which is carefully closed after the filling of the boiler.
This rough cauldron is built in a brick kiln, in which is fired, and above it has a copper so-called helmet, from which springs a metal hose, which spirals wound through the cooling vat, a wooden barrel filled with cold water, which must be changed now and then.
By evaporation the alcohol contained in the contents of the kettle passes into the helmet and is cooled in the snake to a clear liquid, which runs out of the bottom end of the snake as a rack and is collected in a stone pot in the ground, and from which it is shoveled by means of a flapping cap and placed in ready-to-use barrels.
I observed the above process in the renowned arak distillery of Khouw Wan Tjiang at Kampong Baroe in the kotta Batavia, a factory that dates back to the last century.
This factory supplies, among other things, the arraks to Heineke & Co., which it exports to Europe.
I derive the following from the instruction on the ordinance concerning the import duty and the excise duty on the distilled, for the civil servants of that branch of service, at Batavia ter Landsdrukkerij: [Ter Lands Printing Company]
In some small arrak distilleries in Java, belonging to Chinese, the crude boiler described above is replaced by a common copper kettle with a very high lid, and the hose by a bamboo pipe, which opens into an earthen pot, on which condensation of the alcohol vapors flowing therefrom a stream of cold water is led.
Sometimes that coarse cauldron is also called a so-called crude column, in which, as the quenching of the batter progresses, a new batter is continually added, in order to replenish the space that has become void. [early description of continuous distillation?]
When the rough cauldron is used, the charge does not take place directly from the trays, but the batter is first transferred to a so-called collecting vat, which is placed above the column and from which it then flows into the apparatus. [continuous distillation with the wash entering at the top]
Sometimes the cooling off of the vapors is partly carried out partly in a container filled with conical fittings. The hose of the raw boiler is then passed through the tub before it points in the cooling vat, as a result of which the batter in said tub is already heated to some extent. Since the quenching of such heated batter requires less fuel, it is carried out more quickly and as a result one has not uniquely given the name of an accelerating tub to such a tub. [Cognac style pre-heating]
So far the instruction.
The arrak obtained in the manner described above has an average of 54% alcohol and is cloudy.
The weak arrak, which flows out of the snake in the last part of the first distillation, is collected separately and once again fired or redistilled in a separate place.
This transfer takes place in a distillation boiler, which is arranged in the same way as the raw kettle.
In order to serve as a shipment to Europe, which shipment takes place in large leggers, the alcohol content of the arrak is increased to 61% by adding arraked spirits, obtained from the distillate of the slower arrak.
[so they do not distill twice, but rather bump it by averaging it up with a distillation of the accumulated heads and tales fractions. He doesn’t mention heads, but I’m assuming.]
This in terms of preparation.
At the moment it remains to be determined which microorganisms play an important role in the preparation of the arrack in the manner described above.
The insights of Brefeld and Moeller concerning the essence of the Saccharomyces species will be left out of consideration. Science has their claim that they no longer have to be counted by the typical, independent types of swine, but in reality are conidia, fruit-bearing of other fungi, which increase in infusions through infusions into infinity, (1) no statement made. (2)
[I don’t really know how to interpret this at the moment.]
(1) Dr. Oscar Brefeld. Botanische l’ntersuchungen über Hefenpilze. Fortsetzung der Schimmelpilze. V Heft.
H. Moeller. Uber den Zellkern und die Sporen der Hefe (Centralblatt für Bacteriologie und Parasitenkunde. Bnd. XII. p. 537).
(2) Emil Chr. Barsen. Uber die neuen Versuchen, das Genus Saccharomyces zu streichen.
It has already been stated above which microorganisms are located in the Javanese “Ur-hefe”, the ragi. In addition to many cocci and bacilli, a small hollow cell is constantly recognizable, which probably develops an Amylomyces in the tapej lot. In the ragi itself, I always saw her at the same stage, without ever having succeeded in finding spouts.
It is certain that the ferment which processes the conversion of amylum into fermentation of sugar is contained in the ragi, and that later Saccharomyces forms which produce the alcoholic fermentation and which, in addition to the bacilli and cocci in sufficient amount is found in the tapej juice. [I wonder if the clay pots hold any tapej juice to for the secondary fermentation?]
In the fermentation of the molasses in the Batavian arrak distilleries, the formation of alcohol is introduced, as it were, by the addition of the fermentation tapej mass, but already in the mixture which is the first day in the tub in the open air, an exceptionally large development of rod-shaped cells is found, which in their appearance show no correspondence at all with the simultaneously present Saccharomyces cells. This development gains the upper hand over the shoot fungi, so that it is difficult to find the latter in the microscopic preparations, since the visual field is almost entirely occupied by the rod-shaped bodies.
Plate. II fig. F. gives an illustration of these cells, it being noted that they usually occur two by two with one end connected to one another and that, to make a trivial comparison, as the constituent parts of a dry flail. Her connection probably arises through adherence; when currents occur in a microscopic specimen, this connection is clearly pronounced, since they, sometimes in a straight line connected to each other, are turned into a V-shape in their union. The two arms of the V, each forming one cell, are usually equal and uniform. Sometimes, however, one of these is slightly swollen or one arm is smaller than the other. A grainy content is clearly recognizable. In rare cases I found three connected in a row. The figure F. on the right indicates these details as well as the normal form. The preparation is taken from the yeast chop, in which the intense top fermentation takes place.
The Saccharomyces forms also exist and exist between them, although in a large minority. These have been included in the cleft F., but it takes time to recognize some groups among the riddle cells.
In the re-fermentation in the earthen pots, which is much less powerful than that which takes place in the batter vats, these form elements also have the upper hand.
In the pots a thick gray-brown layer of these cells forms on the bottom mixed with a small round, as Fig. F. shows on the left. They are then less powerfully developed and slimmer in shape.
Whether or not the sediment in the pots, which has the strong flavor of the arrak, is a consequence of the gradual dying off of the plaice forms due to the high alcohol content of the liquid, whether or not there is the issue of a so-called organ fermentation, will have to be determined by culture tests. [not sure how to fix the translation issues here]
The whole field of the role, which the microorganisms play described above in the Batavia arraking process, is still as good as fallow, and biological research through series of cultural tests will certainly be rewarding.
Not always, however, does the Batavian aristocrat go to his pleasure. [I don’t think the word is aristocrat. the translated term is arakstoker. ]
Some types of molasses give a relatively significant lower alcohol content in the same process.
The Chinese chief of the factory at Kampong Baroe Te Pang Kie showed this on occasion, that I was able to use his arrak distillery with dr. Eijkman, director of the bacteriological laboratory in Batavia, visited.
In this case, during the time when tapej-stripped batter was digging into the earthen pots, gray or greyish spots appeared on the surface as islands, which, according to Dr. Eijkman’s research was almost exclusively composed of cocci, diplo- and streplococci and various species of bacilli, the first of which accumulated to zoogloid masses. According to the arrak makers, such batter gives arrak with a much lower alcohol content than that from the pots in which these spots do not show up.
The origin of the casing cells, if I may call them so, occurs first in the batter in the vats, that is, in the addition of molasses to the tapej. In the tapej itself, which I repeatedly examined microscopically, I never found it. Presumably the germs are thus contained in the crude molasses, and this is likely to be seen when viewing the stock of molasses of the arrak makers. In the colossal barrels, in which it is stored, those in the open air are only protected against rainwater, or under the roof, intense mold has developed on the surface of the contents, so that a thick gray layer covers the brown-black molasses. Later this layer becomes black, but also in the molasses, which lies beneath the mold layer, numerous Saccharomyces forms and other fungi are found, of which Fig. II, Lett. E. gives a picture.
The molasses is called “goela tettes” in Malay, i.e. dripped sugar, and this denomination arose at the time when the sugar factories purified the sugar from the molasses by claying them in earthen jars, which had an opening from below, from which the syrup sugar drifted away and was caught in gutters.
The introduction of centrifuges in the sugar factories has not prevented them from retaining the old name, of which there is also a synonym in the factories, i.e. goela tjeng.
In the Chinese the molasses is called thèng tsoei.
In Batavia, she is brought to arrak preparation of the coast by proa in small barrels.
The cause of why the Batavia arrak has a stronger aroma than the other Java arrak, has not yet been decided.
They took a test on one of the coasts at the time, by moving one of the arrak makers of Batavia, and letting them work there, but the product did not differ from the ordinary Java-rack, without their help.
Hekmeijer (1) states that in the surroundings of Batavia (in 1876) the sugar industry is still running on the old foot, and that there is a lot of sugar left in the syrup (molasses), and that therefore the best arrak obtained from that place becomes, therefore, double the price of that from the East corner of Java, where only very low-sugar syrups are processed to arrak.
(1) T. Hekmeijer. Handleiding voor technologie en warenkennis, op last van het departement van oorlog. Batavia, 1876.
I have not quoted this work above, because it is from the arak preparation on p. 55 and 56 gives a completely incorrect representation. Also the preparation of other Indian foods, treated in this work, deserves little confidence.
This reasoning does not apply. The arrak is not fired from the crystallizable sugar retained in molasses.
At the very most, assuming that this cane sugar was transformed into crystallized sugar or into grape sugar, more production of arrak would be obtained with the same quantity of raw material; but that the peculiar aroma, which the Batavia arrak has to a greater extent than the others, would thereby be increased, is not well explained.
After all, most arrak factories working in Batavia get their molasses off the coast !!
It is possible that the river water, which at Batavia serves for the discharge, has an influence on the stronger aroma, as claimed by others.
For the time being, this riddle will remain unsolved.
The communication of Bleeker, that in the arraks of Batavia some species of Acalephen, who bring a burning sensation to the skin, in the arraks (1) would be used to make the arrak more stimulating, was not confirmed by repeated research .
(1) Natuur- en Geneeskundig archief voor Neertands-Indie, 2 jaargang.
P. Bleeker. Bijdragen lot de geneeskundige topographie van Batavia, pag. 498.
In the time of Bontius this may have been the case with some of the arrak makers, but nowhere is this happening.
Since 1874, when the excise duty was imposed on the Inland distillery, the six arrak makers on Batavia are constantly and at unexpected times controlled by 3 revenuers and their staff, some of whom work this out, so that it is difficult to believe that such an admixture should be these officials would have escaped.
De arakstokers zelven geven op, nooit van eene bijvoeging, als hier bedoeld wordt, gehoord te hebben.
Sio tsióe.
13. Tsióe (Chineesch).
Arrak tjina (Maleisch).
The spirits, known to the Chinese under the collective name of tsióe, must in a genetic sense be distinguished from the distillate, which we simply call arrack.
The word “arak” is originally Arabic and indicates an alcohol-rich liquid (1).
1) Dictionnaire Malais-Français, par I’ Abbé P. Favre. Tome premier, pag. 123.
In the Eastern countries, where Arab influence has applied, this word has been transposed into the national language and has acquired citizenship in the languages of European settlers. What has been understood in Java on this subject has been shown in the previous article, i.e. a distilled spirituous fluid, obtained by alcoholic fermentation of molasses, which fermentation is or is not initiated by rice paste. In a genetic sense, the arrak thus corresponds more to the West Indian rum, although the aroma of both spirits differs from one another.
In China, however, such liquids are only produced from rice or other cereals, sometimes from sweet potatoes, as O. A. Fauvel reports (2).
2) Zie Fauvel, 1. c. pag. 318.
The fact that the Chinese tsióe is generally called Chinese arrak in the Netherlands-Indies is due to the Chinese themselves, who are always inclined to compare these with familiar native products or conditions when discussing cases of their country with non-Chinese. So the béh-ko-preparer calls the barley imported from China in an interview with a Bataviaan nooìt [new comer?] by the name that the barley carries in China, but uses to facilitate the words paddi tjina, i.e. Chinese uncontested rice, although the rice in China also occurs and in itself knows, that the paddi of China is something different than the barley.
Likewise, a Chinese at Batavia will question the name of a lost Chinese deity, never give simply the desired answer, but usually announce that it represents Allah’s tjina.
Such Chinese interference is due to the fact that the Chinese drink is always called Chinese arrak, notwithstanding this is a product obtained from fermenting rice, while in our arrak, the molasses served as the main ingredient.
But not only on distillates, but also on wines, the Chinese used the name tsióe.
The native Chinese rice wine has already been treated under the article liquid brēm.
Since the Chinese use [Chinese character missing] for their wines and spirits of one character, and add other characters to indicate the origin, some Sinologists, as b. v. Porter Smith (1), do not always separate these different alcoholic beverages from each other.
(1) Zie de artikelen Brandy, Spirits of Wine. Whiskey en Wine in Porter Smith’s contributions towards the materia medica and natural history of China.
In this article, however, only the Chinese distillates are referred to.
The preparation of rice alcohol by the Chinese is by Dr. A. Calmette, the director of the Pasteur Institute in Saigon, has recently been carefully studied. From his announcements it appears how the alcoholic drink, which is called arrak tjina, is distilled. (1)
(1) Zie Dr. Calmette, Contribution à l’étude des ferments de la levure Chinoise: Annales de l’Institut Pasteur, Tome VI. pag. 604, en La fabrication des alcools de riz en Extrème-Orient. Etude biologique et physiologique de la levure Chinoise et du koji japonais, par le Dr. A. Calmette, medecin de 1rst classe du corps de Santé colonial, directeur de L’Institut bacteriologique et vaccinogène de Saigon. 1892.
The process starts with making tapej from cooked sticky rice. This rice is cooked for that purpose for two hours, after which it is spread in a thin layer until it cools down. After cooling, it is sprinkled with a powder of what we would call ragi here, and which is referred to by Calmette as “levure Chinoise”, of which the Chinese name mentions “miyèn” and the Anamitian “mèn”.
Also the preparation of this Chinese ragi is by Dr. Calmette carefully examined the tasks that were received in that respect, while visiting the workshops where the yeast was made in large.
In addition to the rice flour, 46 ingredients are used to prepare it, including many aromatics from the Chinese pharmacopoeia, almost all of which were determined by the mediation of Monseigneur Colombert and the director of the Hoffner Garden, but below which I found only one. t. w. Alpinia galanga, which is also needed here in Java for the preparation of ragi.
The majority of these adjuvants, however, according to Dr. Calmette has no other purpose than to entrain the rice alcohol with the aetheric oils from these articles and to give them real or supposed medicinal properties, so to make out what is called “arak obat”.
These aromatics are mixed in a Chinese mill with the rice flour to form a homogenous mass, after which it is processed into a soft paste with water to knead balls out of it, which have the shape and size of our ragi bolls. They are dried on mats, after having attached one or more fragments of rice husks (dedek) to their base.
This adherence of rice bran does not occur here in the ragi preparation, and precisely to the presence of these fragments. Calmette is of great value, since according to his breeding experiments they contain germs of the ferment, which causes the saccharification of the starch in the tapej. We have seen above, that in Java and Madura sometimes also small arrak distilleries are found, which serve to induce the fermentation of the water-diluted molasses only from unpeeled paddi-grains or gaba. The germs adhering thereto can therefore do more here than to convert the starch into fermentation of sugar; they can apparently also produce alcoholic fermentation in such a sugar solution. Furthermore, in China and Cochin-China the yeasts are dried in the same way as here and in bags of one pikol sold to the Chinese tsióe-makers.
In some parts of China and in Cambodia there is a different type of yeast bulbs, which according to Dr. Calmette are more aromatic and in which the rice flour is sometimes replaced by bean or cornmeal.
These are finer in processing and are mainly used for Chinese patisserie. They also serve to make rice wine and tapej cakes.
The further preparation of the Chinese alcohol in the distilleries there is essentially similar to that of secret arraks, occasionally discovered on Java. [moonshine?]
The latter do not make a product for the export trade, but Chinese produce out of tapej without adding molasses, so in the real Chinese way.
As is known, the rice alcohol is also sometimes imported into China from Java for consumption, usually in small belly-shaped jars with a narrow neck and a slightly widened mouth (amphora shape).
The relatively high import duties that the traditional alcoholic drinks and the excise duty distilled on the Inlanders have tempted some Chinese to secretly produce the Chinese spirits here from tapej mass. The utensils required for this are very simple. An iron semi-spherical pan (kwali) placed over a fire serves to take up the tapej-ketan in alcoholic fermentation.
Above this pan there is an apparatus, of which I can not compare the form, in small, better than with the inverted lower part of a wine bottle.
Keeping this shape in mind, one is able to get an understanding of the distilling apparatus. [wok in pot still?]
Perpendicular to the edge of the iron pan a cylinder of wood has been built up, reinforced by iron hoops (compared to the walls of the reverse flange end).
This cylinder is not closed from above by a plane, but by a tin cone, which fits with the point downwards in the top opening (the so-called soul of the bottle). This composition is sufficient.
Heating the tapej in the iron pan volatizes the alcohol, the vapors of which are condensed in drops against the tin cone and to which the cone is threaded to the upward-facing free opening, the base, with cold water, which can be changed when it has become lukewarm warm under the operation. [definitely a wok in pot still!]
As the walls of the tin cone converge downwards in one point, the alcohol droplets deposited against the walls run off to this point and would end up in the tapej again if an iron spoon had not been fitted just below the downwardly directed conical tip, so as to to catch droppings and to divert them into a bamboo tube that slants downwards and protrudes outside the wooden cylinder.
With a thin stream the tsióe runs through the end of the bamboo box, to be collected in a ready standing pot.
A more primitive distillation machine, which nevertheless has the practical result of working sufficiently and cheaply, is not conceivable. It is really Chinese.
Almost all discovered secret arrak makers work with such an installation.
The microorganisms, which occur in Saigon in the Chinese yeast and have the capacity to convert the rice starch into fermentation of sugar, have been accurately analyzed by Dr. Calmette. One of them, called “Amylomyces Rouxii”, attributes mainly to this ability, while additional Saccharomyces species must induce alcoholic fermentation.
14. Toeak manis. [Batavia Maleisch].
Lahang. [Soendaneesch].
Legèn. [Javaansch].
Laāng. [Madoereesch].
The sweet toeak consists of the juice, which is extracted from the cut flower flask of some palm species, such as Cocos nucefera L., Borassus flabelliformis L, Arenga obtusifolia and Arenga saccharifera L.
The properties of the plant juice that these palms provide are quite similar. Only small differences in sugar content or consistency are found as it is tapped from one or the other type.
It mainly consists of water, sugar, plant mucilage, protein stotting and mineral substances.
The toeak of the Borassus flabelliformis was at the time in Surabaja chemically examined by the military pharmacist Schmidt (1) From his report, which however applies toeak, which had already been converted into alcoholic fermentation, it appears that the specific gravity was 1.0052, that 1 liter evaporated, left behind 40 grein extract of mucilago like consistency, which had the smell, taste and color of sugar, and that there was still 14,285 grein fruit sugar per liter in it.
(1) J. H. Schmidt, Sagueer, Toewak. Geneesk. Tijds. v. Ned. Ind. Dl. XX p. 321.
As inorganic constituents there was a little bit of carbonic acid and a relatively large amount of silicic acid in potassium, natron, magnesia, phorphoric acid, hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid.
All toeak manis is clear in a very different state, usually slightly yellowish, and has a faint, but not unpleasant odor. The fermentation, which soon comes in, changes this however. The juice then becomes hazy and the smell reverberates, the toeak, that of the Borassus flabelliformis (Lontar Soend., Siwalan Madoereesch) and of the Arenga saccharifera (Kawoeng Soendaneesch, Arèn Javanese and Bat. Malayan), obtains an unpleasant aroma by development of a little hydrogen sulphide gas.
In the case of the yeast of toeak, obtained from the coconut tree (Cocos nucifera L.), this aroma was not detected by me.
The fresh juice tastes pleasantly slimy sweet. When the bamboo cooker or periuk (1) in which it is collected is only smoked, which firing takes place in order to temporarily stop the fermentation, it may be less pleasant by the smoky taste. [it burst into fermentation unless cooked to pasteurize it]
(1) Een perioek is een buikige aaiden pot met wijde opening en uitstaanden rand. In het dagelijksche leven is het woord verbasterd tot priok.
In people with habitual constipation, they often have success when they are let drinking a glass of this ½ or ¾ a liter in the morning on an empty stomach. I prefer the toeak kelapa for this. The consumption of toeak manis also has a good reputation for oral thrush sufferers.
The manner in which the sweet loeak of the arèn-tree (Arenga saccharifera L.) at Batavia is won is as follows:
The flower flask, which sits on a firm stalk, is hanging, that is to say that the flower flask, which rises from the base of the leaf stalks at the designated place, first has a curved upward curve and then hangs downwardly.
The female and male flowers occur to separate flasks.
If the female flask is so far advanced in growth that the flowers are almost ripe, the leaves are cut away near the origin of the flask, the flower sheath is removed, the flask is placed in a more erected position and with a rope attached to one of the upper petioles, confirmed, maintained. Two times a week this flask is now gently moved back and forth (ajoen), and before and after it undergoes this oscillating movement, gently beaten over the whole expanse (ketok) with a cylindrical piece of wood, to which a stem, that has the shape and size of a small wine bottle (ketokan).
After this has taken place for a few weeks, the flowers begin to ripen, which is known to the native speaker, because the flowers are visited by bees.
If this is the case, the flower flask is cut slightly above the implantation of the first flowers and the bottom end is removed.
At the end of the part which remains on the tree, a bamboo tube (lodong) or earthen pot (periuk) is hung, after the wound surface of the flower flask is protected against insects by winding with a dry banana leaf fragment.
However, as this wound surface soon dries, one has to cut away a thin slice of the flask twice a day when the filled tube or pot is changed.
The juice will continue to elute for 1 to 2 months under this treatment, and the flower flask is gradually being cut away almost completely.
15. Toealt kras. [Batavia Maleisch].
Lahang bari. [Soendaneesch].
Werak. [Javaansch].
Toeak. [Madoereesch].
When the fresh juice, described in the previous article, stands for a short time, it begins to become cloudy. This turbidity is increasing rapidly, while the rapid and extensive development of a Saccharomyces species and the simultaneous development of bacilli, fermentation occurs. From the course of this fermentation in the case of toeak arèn I made the following notes:
The toeak manis had been taken from the tree at six ½ o’clock in the morning, where it had been collected in an earthen pot, and was poured into a wide-mouthed flask at about 8 ½ o’clock in the morning. No néri bark was added to the liquid.
Eight ½ o’clock in the morning. Liquid a little opalescent, translucent. Odor peculiar, not unpleasant.
10 ½ o’clock in the morning. Liquid cloudy. Small flakes (Saccharomyces cells and bacilli) have developed, which adhere to the walls here and there, and a flaky sediment has formed on the bottom of the bottle. Fermentation has already begun, but still weak. A small amount of foam adheres to the edge of the surface and the sound is rickety.
12 ½ o’clock in the morning. The fermentation and the turbidity have increased, so that the liquid resembles watery milk. The flakes in the liquid are in a rising and falling motion, through the development of fine, invisible bubbles. The sediment at the bottom of the bottle has increased. The foam layer of the surface is ½ decimeter high.
2½ hours in the afternoon. Fermentation continues considerably. The smell is uncomfortably acidic with the addition of hydrogen sulphide gas. The foam, which shows dark spots of contamination at the top, is 1 ctm. high.
4½ o’clock in the afternoon. Turbidity the same. Heavy up and down movement of flakes in the moisture. The foam has been worked up 2 to 3 centimeters high, but begins to collapse here. Odor unpleasant.
6½ o’clock in the afternoon. The unpleasant odor can be seen at a certain distance. Fermentation just as stiff. The foam reduces.
8½ hours in the evening. Like the previous observation. The foam has almost disappeared.
10 ½ hours in the evening. Fermentation is diminishing. Only a little foam on the edge of the surface. The flakes move less quickly.
On the other morning the fermentation was completely finished and the liquid at rest.
The smell of hydrogen sulphide had disappeared and had made way for an aroma like buttermilk; the turbidity, however, was not reduced. At the bottom of the bottle a thick, flaky layer had been deposited from yeasts, and from a colossal quantity of short bacilli and cocci, the latter had accumulated into mammoths.
Also the toeak, in which a bundle of bark from the néri-tree (Carapa obovata) is laid, undergoes a corresponding fermentation. In the liquid, however, not the above-described flakes arise, which rise up and down during the fermentation, but from the wood bundle visible gas bubbles develop under soft poisoning sound, while the toeak first assumes a flesh-colored hue, which gradually grows stronger and finished can go brick-red.
If the fermentation has run off in such a way, then the sediment has a different aspect and consists of a gray, silty layer without flakes, while the microscopic examination shows that the Saccharomyces species appears smaller than when no bitter bark was added. There are in the néri-bark treated toeak is where also bacteria and coccen present, but in a much lesser extent and never to zoogloeën-mass accumulated.
An image of the sediment of toeak scratch, in which kayoe is not attached, shows Figure II. sub Ц. [last character illegible]
Since the magnification is the same as in the other pictures, this shows how considerably smaller these Saccharomyces are than those which cause the alcoholic fermentation in the rice wine.
If no néri bark is added, the Saccharomyces forms are twice as large. Whether one has to do with a different species here, or whether the development of the fungi is modified by the feeding of the néri-bark, can only be determined by cultural tests.
If this tiny sprout mushroom has not yet been described, then I suggest calling it Saccharomyces tuac.
From the previously cited research of the military pharmacist Schmidt, it appears that when flaconiformis was obtained in the Soerabujian toeak kras of Borassus, no more than 5% alcohol was found with simultaneous presence of vinegar.
The addition of babakan néri or other bitter barks and carrots takes place in order to obstruct as much as possible the vinegar fermentation, which is set up almost simultaneously with the alcoholic fermentation.
Toeak kras, where this additive is made, must therefore contain more alcohol than if this had not been the case, for the acetic acid develops at the expense of the alcohol.
At Batavia the bark is always used. Whether Madura is used for the Carapa carnulosa Zoll, or the same species, that is still there, is not yet known to me.
In the Moluccas, other barks, such as that of the related Carapa granatum, Kón, while making the real palm wine, serve the roots of a tree, which is called the sesoot tree by Rumphius or the Pharmacum sagueri. This appears to be the Sarcinia L. of the Guttiferae family.
Toeak kras and the palm wine are called “sagueer” in Makassar by the Europeans, a word that comes from the Portuguese.
The description of the Carapa species, the bark of which is used in Batavia in the preparation of toeak kras, corresponds entirely to that of the Carapa obovata Juss, but the leaves which must be obovated in obovata, here are elongated elliptical.
The possibility exists that this plant forms a variety. The four thin, sticky spacers of the stone fruit resembling a large pomegranate each contain 2 to 3 partially angular and partly rounded seeds, which can not or only very difficultly be re-joined in their original placement once they have been removed from the fruit. This peculiarity, which contains truth and was communicated to me by an Inlander, who is looking for the bark for toeak-kras producers. I found the same back at Rumphius, who already told in 1690 of the seeds of C. granatum.
The hast has a brown epidermis, which will soon release. Shortly after peeling she is still white, but soon she assumes a dark wine color by the action of the air.
In strips of 2½ decimetres length she is first beaten well and then tied in bundles of ¼ decimetre thickness, to be done in the toeak. If it has decayed too long in the moisture, which has thereby assumed a brick-red color, then the toeak-scratch would be undrinkable by the great bitterness. In such a case, the moisture is diluted with sweet toeak, which soon takes part in the fermentation.
The taste of the Bataviasche toeak-scratch is lightly bitter and wry. It is a drink that must be learned to drink like whiskey. Still, with deductions from the servants in the hotels, with some natives in the kampoeng and with our soldiers.
The cavalrymen in Batavia are especially keen on it, and many times I saw on my trips in the kampoeng in the afternoon hours a toeak-kras-salesman, crouching on a quiet spot and surrounded by a circle of horsemen, who are “kwak”, as they call the liquid, too good (1). The toeak-kras stays good for 3 days.
(1) The use of toeak-scratch has been increased by the authorities from the minorities.
This liquid has the property, as has already been noted by earlier writers, to quickly intoxicate the one who drinks it, especially when shortly afterwards a glass is used here or a drink. At Soemenep it happened to me that after drinking out of my wit, I drank a glass of toast, followed by a drunken drink within the hour, with nausea and dizziness accompanied by vomiting. However, one can soon get used to that drink.
I am of the opinion that the addition of the Néri-bark is not entirely innocent. The seeds must contain a toxic principle, according to the native, who brought me the different parts of plants here. I warned against the internal use, which is known by the Natives as being drunken.
A chemical examination of the hull seems desirable to me.
16. Azijn.
tjoeka [Maleisen],
tshò [Chineesch]
As far as I know, there are four main types of vinegar in Batavia:
1: the vinegar of European manufacture (whether or not native or imported), the tjoeka belanda,
2: the vinegar for Inland consumption, prepared from soured toeak (tjoeka djawa),
3: that which is made from acidified tapej juice as waste from the arrak factories (tjoeka djawa), and
4: vinegar prepared by Chinese. The native vinegar of European manufacture differs according to whether the manufacture was made here, or whether it was produced by diluting the vinegar essence with water.
The fact that this vinegar is made by consumers in households is not reprehensible and, at best, advised against, since it is always more acute than the naturally occurring vinegar; but that some European shopkeepers sell this artificial product as ordinary vinegar is a fact that I have been convinced in one of my inspections. The vinegar essence, which is on the market and imported from Germany, is called “kepala tjoeka” or head of vinegar with the Chinese shopkeepers.
At Batavia, the vinegar production is carried out by means of the process, which is called quick-vinegar in Europe. The vinegar is, among others, at the Houtrijve & Co. company prepared as follows:
In a cool, well ventilated room, the batteries that serve as vinegar. Each battery consists of three very tall wooden tubs, manufactured by Chinese, around which hoops of twisted bamboo are attached.
These vats are cylindrical, but otherwise mainly arranged as the plate of such a device in Krecke’s Manual (1), however, covered from above with a shelf cover, which, when necessary, can be reduced to air displacement. False bottoms are located below the upper open part and above the bottom, d. i. joined planks, which lay cross dividers, but have been heard through holes. The cockpit is filled with charcoal between these transverse partitions.
(1) Dr. F. W. KRECKE. Handleiding der chemische technologie, pag. 497.
A chimney pipe, as Krecke explains, is here abstinent, as the air between the chunks of charcoal moves better than when wood shavings serve fate. Under the downstream transverse baffle, air holes have been provided in the wall of the tub. [vinegar needs oxigens].
The liquid to be processed is stored in drums in a nearby room. These barrels are filled with a mixture of arrack, vinegar and water, provided that at 1280 liters arrak by 50%. alcohol content, 426 liters of vinegar and 2560 liters of water. This mixture is called here bijang (2).
(2) A Batavian-Malay word, which is derived from Javanese and means “mother”. In Batavia, that means a laying hen by ajam. The bijjang tjocka of Batavia should not be confused with the so-called vinegar nut, which develops in the vats and consists of a gelatinous form of mycoderma aceti.
In order to communicate the method, I assume that the three tanks from which a battery consists all are filled, d. i. that the charcoal is spread over the entire expanse with a bijang. After two hours, not only in the first tub on the bottom the liquid has accumulated, which has leaked through the charcoal and the contents of a tub, but also in the second and third tub, this is the case. The liquid from the first tub is drained by a glass tube arranged laterally near the bottom in a tub and above in the tub. 2, while, in the meantime, the liquid collected at the bottom of this tub is tapped in the same manner, and at the top of tub. 3 collects.
The liquid, which at the same time is drained from the 3rd tub from below, sets the vinegar there. Of course, the tub no. 1 is again supplemented with a tonne full of the original unfermented mixture of the bijang.
In this way one is able to produce a tun of vinegar every two hours, the content of which is approximately 20 liters.
The product of no. 3, before being dispensed, is filtered in a tub, in which a hole is drilled through at half its height, above which a cloth is lying on which a layer of crushed filter paper is spread, which is ± 1½ decimetres thick.
The strength of the vinegar thus produced depends on the weather. When the East monsoon is dry, the vinegar is stronger than in the opposite weather conditions.
At the time of delivery, however, the vinegar is brought to the same strength, for vinegar of the first type at 6 pCt. acetic acid and for that of the 2nd type at 5 pCt.
It also undergoes a slight yellow coloring by adding a little caramel, since the colorless vinegar is not wanted by the public.
A few companies import small amounts of wine vinegar from Europe, which costs twice the price of the quick vinegar manufactured at Batavia.
Sometimes in Hesschen, which contains quick-process vinegar, a dark colored sediment is formed in a small quantity, which appears microscopically from the same jelly-like mass as that which in the batteries destroys vinegar preparation in thick layers against the walls, but a part of the residual material of the caramel in itself.
In the so-called vinegar nut, which is deposited in a thick gelatinous layer against the walls of the tubs, microscopes can not be distinguished even by coloring any particular form elements. In the fermenting liquid, however, the Mycoderma aceti (bacillus aceti) is present as fine rosary-shaped cords.
This vinegar is used in Batavia only as an accompaniment to the preparation of dishes, but also to the incorporation of various parts of plants, which serve as Indian acids for export. In the Indian households, there is usually still a preparation of pieces of bacon with turmeric root, capsicum fragments or multiple herbs in vinegar, as atjar babi. Baked fish or boiled prawns are also prepared in this way to atjar ikan or atjar oedang. These last items are not eligible for export.
If artificial vinegar is used for the preparation of the Indian acids, this is soon noticed by the sharper acid taste.
The Inland vinegar prepared from toeak manis does not lend itself well to the preparation of atjars (1), which must be preserved for some time, as it usually contains too few per cent acetic acid and has an unpleasant after taste due to the multitude of its impurities. If it is prepared from acidified tapej juice, which comes from the arrak factories, which is rarely done, the raw material, which is swarming with vinegar nematodes, is boiled and filtered, but this vinegar is of lesser quality than the Inland vinegar, which is made of toeak. [vinegar eels!]
(1) All food preserved or preserved in vinegar is known in Malay “atjar.”
The preparation of the latter is very simple and consists solely of it, the toeak-kras, which has been passed into alcoholic fermentation without any addition, by purifying filtration of the sediment which, after the fermentation, takes place at the bottom of the vessel, in which this has been done, gathered, and let stand some days.
In this liquid the acetic acid fermentation soon occurs, since the germs, have already been in the air, still existed during the alcoholic fermentation.
From the mentioned studies of the mil. pharmacist Schmidt (1) shows that the acetic acid content of Siwalan toeak increased to the eighth day, but that it gradually decreased thereafter. In this native vinegar it reached 3.34 pCt. acetic acid.
(1) J. H. Schmidt 1. c. pag. 321.
The city pharmacist Houtzager here was so kind to examine a sample of Batavian Inland vinegar for me, with the result that it contained 3pCt. acetic acid. This vinegar was created by fermentation of toeak kelapa or toeak, obtained from the Cocos ??? teifera. [last word missing]
The native vinegar is always milky cloudy, which turbidity disappears by filtration and clarification with protein.
A rapid development of vinegar nematodes, which crawl up at the edge of the vinegar surface with thousands of eggs and against the walls of the bottle, is a common phenomenon.
Microscopically, in the Inland vinegar, apart from Mycoderma (Bacillus) aceti, there are consistently long, thin, flexible bacilli of various sizes, which sometimes lie at an angle to each other and therefore appear dichotomous, which is not the case, however. In addition, small round-shaped cells with byalin wall and countless bacteria are found. FIG. C shows an image of a preparation that has been colored beforehand by means of rosaniline.
The real Chinese vinegar is not commercially available here, but is produced by some Chinese for their own consumption. To this end, they take a certain amount of homemade rice wine, which has not yet been fortified with arrack and is colored red with ang khak.
With this, a Chinese goetji (1) is filled halfway, before a little bit of sugar has been dissolved in it.
(1) A vitrified, high, earthen pot with narrower opening than the average diameter.
The goetji is only loosely covered with a plate and placed at some distance from the fire in the kitchen against dirt or insects. Acetic acid fermentation often occurs, which has progressed to such an extent after 10 to 20 days, that the liquid has changed into a pleasantly smelling, genuine wine vinegar. A sample of this vinegar appeared at 7.8 pCt. acetic acid and has a light brown color. In addition, the moisture was fairly clear.
A decline in vinegar with sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid or tartaric acid, as is sometimes done in Europe, does not occur here in commerce. However, the Chinese shoppers or warong keepers do not see up to 5%. to purchase acetic acid in barrels from the vinegar manufacturers, to tap into bottles themselves and to provide these bottles with étiquettes, on which only the word “wine vinegar” appears, but the decay of quick vinegar with Inlandsche would immediately be betrayed by the turbidity of the liquid.
Once upon a time, European tea-holders try to sell water-thinned Essig essenz as natural vinegar, preferably to the Inland preparers of Indian acids, but this remains the case.
This does not detract from the fact that there is no chance of finding out in the finer French or English varieties of vinegar imported from Europe, for which the sellers can not be held liable here.
Batavia, 23 March 1893.
The plates start here.
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