On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 1426

Distilled spirits are the concentrated essence of wine and beer They’re the product of a basic chemical fact: different substances boil at different temperatures The boiling point of alcohol is about 173ºF/78ºC, well below water’s 212ºF/100ºC This means that if a mixture of water and alcohol is heated, more of the alcohol than the water will end up in the vapor That vapor can then be cooled and condensed back into a liquid that has a higher alcoholic content than the original beer or wine Distilled spirits were first valued, and still are, for their high alcohol content But there’s much more to them than their intoxicating power Like alcohol, the substances that give wine and beer their aroma are also volatile: so the same process that concentrates alcohol also concentrates aroma Distilled alcohols are some of the most intensely flavorful foods we have The History of Distilled Spirits The History of Distilled Spirits The Discovery of Distillation High concentrations of alcohol are toxic to all living things, including the yeasts that produce it Brewing yeasts can’t tolerate more than about 20% So stronger drink can only be made by physically concentrating the alcohol in fermented liquids The key to discovering distilled alcohol would have been two observations: that the vapors of a heated liquid can be recaptured by condensing them on a cool surface, and that the vapors of heated wine or beer are more strongly alcoholic than the original liquid The practice of distillation itself appears to be very old There’s evidence that the Mesopotamians were concentrating the essential oils of aromatic plants more than 5,000 years ago, using a simple heated pot and a lid onto which vapors condensed and could be collected And Aristotle noted in the 4th century BCE in his Meteorology that “Sea ... condensing them on a cool surface, and that the vapors of heated wine or beer are more strongly alcoholic than the original liquid The practice of distillation itself appears to be very old There’s evidence that the. . .The History of Distilled Spirits The Discovery of Distillation High concentrations of alcohol are toxic to all living things, including the yeasts that produce it Brewing yeasts can’t tolerate more... There’s evidence that the Mesopotamians were concentrating the essential oils of aromatic plants more than 5,000 years ago, using a simple heated pot and a lid onto which vapors condensed and could be collected And Aristotle noted in the 4th