Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Adulteration, Nutrition, Microscopy

    Discusses a letter in the Grocer from W A Frith who presents a recipe for adulterating butter which he believes will make the butter trade more lucrative. The first extract from Frith's letter shows how he adulterated the butter with the relatively cheap ingredients of fat, potatoes, and salt, while the second details the best types of ingredient to use and how best to prepare them. Punch notes that Frith forgot to mention 'where the fat employed in his "process as conducted in the laboratory" is to be most cheaply obtained', a crucial omission for the 'fraudulent dealer'. Urges those who 'object to the adulteration of butter' to use Firth's process to prepare some adulterated butter for comaprison under a microscope with real butter. They will then be able to recognize the difference between 'butter and butter plus potato-starch'.