MOLASSES, or Melasses, that gross fluid matter remaining of sugar after refining, and which no boiling will bring to a consistence more solid than that of syrup; hence also called syrup of sugar.

Properly, molasses are only the sediment of one kind of sugar called chypre, or brown sugar, which is the refuse of other sugars not to be whitened or reduced into loaves.

Molasses are much used in Holland for the preparation of tobacco, and also among poor people instead of sugar. There is a kind of brandy or spirit made of molasses; but by some held exceedingly unwholesome. See below.

Artificial Molasses. There has been found a method of making molasses from apples without the addition of sugar. The apple that succeeds best in this operation is a summer sweeting of a middle size, pleasant to the taste, and so full of juice that seven bushels will yield a barrel of cider.

The manner of making it is this: the apples are to be ground and pressed, then the juice is to be boiled in a large copper, till three quarters of it be evaporated: this will be done with a moderate fire in about six hours, with the quantity of juice above mentioned; by this time it will be of the consistence and taste as well as of the colour of molasses.

This new molasses serves to all the purposes of the common kind, and is of great use in preserving cider. Two quarts of it, put into a barrel of racked cider, will preserve it, and give it an agreeable colour.

The invention of this kind of molasses was owing to Mr Chandler of Woodstock in New England, who living at a distance from the sea, and where the common molasses was very dear and scarce, provided this for the supply of his own family, and soon made the practice among people of the neighbourhood. It is to be observed, that this sort of apple, the sweeting, is of great use in making cider, one of the very best kinds we know being made of it. The people in New England also feed their hogs with the fallings of their orchards of these apples; and the consequence of this is, that their pork is the finest in the world.

Molasses Spirit; a very clean and pure spirit, much used in England, and made from molasses or common treacle dissolved in water, and fermented in the same manner as malt or the common malt spirit. See Distillation, No. 10.

Molasses spirit coming dearer than that of malt, it is frequently met with basely adulterated with a mixture of that spirit, and indeed seldom is to be bought without some dash of it. Many have a way of mixing malt in the fermenting liquor; by this the yield of the whole is greatly increased, and the maker may assure the buyer that the spirit is pure as it ran from the worm.

In most of the nice cafes in our compound distillery, Molosses spirit supplies the place of a pure and clean spirit. Our cinnamon, citron, and other fine cordial waters, are made with it; for the malt spirit would impart to these a very disagreeable flavour.

Molosses spirit gives a yellow stain to the hands or other substances dipped into it; and may therefore be of use in dyeing. It is possible also that the vinegar-makers may find use for it in their way; but the most advantageous of all its uses is to the distiller himself; a quantity of it added to new treacle intended for fermentation will be of great use in the process, and increase very considerably the quantity of spirit; but the proportion in regard to the new matter must not be too great.