An interesting description of French Brandy and its adulteration is found in a book entitled, "The Grocer and Distiller's Useful Guide," by William Beastall, Chemist, published by the author in New York in 1832. On page 208 of this work brandy is defined as "a spiritous and inflammable liquor, obtained by distillation from wine."

The author says:

French brandy acquires by age a great degree of softness, and at the same time a yellowish brown color, which our distillers have imitated in their artificial preparations. But this color being found only in such brandies as have become mellow by long keeping, it follows that the ingredient from which it is extracted, is the wood of the cask, and that the brandy in reality has received a tincture from the oak. The peculiar flavor which French brandies possess, is supposed to be derived from an essential oil of wine, mixed with the spirit; but more probably, it originates from the very nature of the grape, or the wine lees. The color, however, is usually given by burnt sugar. It deserves to be remarked, that our distillers frequently make use of the spirit of nitrous ether, commonly called dulcified spirit of niter, a very small proportion of which, added to pure whisky, or a liquor obtained by the distillation of malt, imparts to it a flavor not unlike that of French brandy.

Imitation brandy is made by running malt spirits through fresh charcoal, adding to each 10 gallons, a pint of the tincture of bitter almonds, and a sufficient quantity of coloring, and one-fourth of good French brandy.

The author also gives a recipe for making imitation brandy, which reads as follows:

Take a hogshead of rectified spirits, to which add four pounds of salt of tartar, as an additional rectifier. Then take three pounds of orris root, three pounds of bitter almonds, ten pounds of prunes, two gallons of wine vinegar, three and a half pounds of salt-petre, three and a half pounds of figs; add these together, and distill with a strong heat until the feints rise, and color with highly burnt brown sugar.

Another recipe for making imitation brandy is found on page 213 of the work, which reads as follows:

The best, and indeed the only method of imitating French brandy to perfection, is by an essential oil of wine, this being the very thing that gives the French brandies their flavor; it must, however, be remembered, that in order to use even this ingredient to advantage, a pure tasteless spirit must be first procured; for it is not likely that this oil should give the flavor of French brandies to any one of our foul malt spirits. The best spirit to convert into French brandies are these; cider spirit, raisin spirit, or crab spirit.

Also a spirit distilled from natural grapes of this country, will prove preferable to any, providing they can be procured in sufficient quantities to make it an object to the distiller.