The encyclopædia of practical cookery

But the great difficulty experienced by cellarmen is to regulate these temperatures, for cellars are quite as liable to change their temperature with the seasons and weather as other parts of the house. This is sometimes overlooked, especially by those who recognise the importance of ventilation. In the summer, if the temperature of the cellar is too high, or varies much, ales are liable to fret, becoming what is called “ pricked,” tasting insipid, and sometimes smelling very disagreeable. Red wines and ales when kept in or exposed to a low temperature taste raw and thin, lose their bouquet, and turn cloudy. Every cellar, therefore, should be fitted with one or more thermometers, and these should be self -registering, so that the lowest temperature may be indicated as well as the highest. There should also be a thermometer outside the house, so that the cellarman may close the ventilators when the external air is above 50deg., keeping the internal air generally at that degree by means of ice in buckets. Should the inner and outer air fall below the mean (55deg.), then some form of heating apparatus would be advisable for reasons already explained. Yentilation, dryness, and cleanliness, are also important precautions in cellar management, and must be carried out with a due regard to temperature. The walls should be lime-washed frequently in the summer, and in the winter also when artificial warming is resorted to ; the floor of the cellar should be concreted throughout, and washed down occasionally with chilled water, provided the drainage system is good. In a small way, it may be considered that so much care would be thrown away upon a cellar, for a great belief in the unchangeable temperature of the underground cells that answer for the purpose frequently leads to neglect. One of the greatest features of a good feast is the liquor, and it is, therefore, quite as well to have it well kept, for then it is superior in quality, and fully repays the trouble taken over it. Wines particularly pay for attention, otherwise the best wine will be poor; but with care a second quality wine may be brought to greater perfection. The fittings of a cellar may be either very elaborate or simple. Stands for barrels, called scantlings, made of wood or iron, or both combined, either self-canting or fixtures. Apparatus fitted with weighted levers, screws, or springs, causing the barrel to tilt as it empties, are frequently preferred to the plain stands, although some cellarmen consider that they are prone to induce carelessness, and assert that the automatic action is not always reliable. Of bins for stacking wine, those of iron or earthenware are usually preferred as being easier to keep clean, and permitting the air free access to the bottle all round. Porcelain labels hung on to removable hooks are very useful to indicate the kind, quality, and date of bottling and storing any particular wine, and the intelligent cellarman will certainly keep a cellarbook in which every detail of importance to the wine and stock he has under his charge shall be duly entered up and balanced. CEIiLULOSE. — The woody fibre of vegetables. It is seen in a pure condition in finely-carded cotton, in Cellulose — continued.