Re: When Geeks Cook

[mike, quoting jeeves]
Am I crazy but "aqueaous ethanolic acid" is somebody trying to be
a smartypants for acetic acid, right?

Very close. There's actually two spelling mistakes there, from
context it's clear you mean "aqueous ethanoic acid'. (and no, I'm not
being prissy about the spelling; in chemistry one or two letters, and
sometimes even the case of the letter is significant. Phosphorus (the
element) is not the same as phosphorous (acid, H3PO3); CO is carbon
monoxide, Co is cobalt)

Ethanoic acid is the systematic name for the carboxylic acid associate
with ethane. the formula is C2H5CO2H. The much much more common, or
trivial, name is acetic acid.

the "aqueous" (= in solution in water) part is significant. Food
grade white vinegar is about a 5% solution of acetic acid in water,
with nothing else in there. It's the end product of aerobic
fermentation of glucose, so if you let air into wine as it ferments,
you get vinegar [the word comes from 'sour wine']. Other vinegars
have other flavours on top of the acid - cider vinegar, malt vinegar
etc - from alcoholic preparations allowed to ferment/brew in air
rather than with air excluded.

Ethanoic acid, or acetic acid, in pure form, is pretty potent stuff.
You don't want to be inhaling it. It's a liquid at ambient
temperatures, though it does freeze solid in cool rooms, and looks
like ice; hence the common name for pure acetic acid is "glacial
acetic acid". It's not used for food at all.

crouching chemist, hidden panda

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