Originally Posted by
jmh54738
Please don't think i'm totally nuts, but today I cut some rhubarb for making sauce; knowing how tart it is, I made a slit in a stalk and stuck 1/2 of a really tarnished penny into the slit. In three minutes the half in the rhubarb was bright. After I cooked down the rhubarb I poured off a little of the now pink liquid (minus the pulp) into a dish and added two tarnished pennies. The result was the same bright pennies. The conclusion of these experiments was to add sufficient sugar to taste to the remaining infusion and refridgerate for later consumption. A search showed oxalic acid as the poison in the leaves and I remember oxalic acid as a bleach for stained wood, but what chemistry is at work in the juice of the rhubarb stalk? This is not a spoof posting. I do not plan large scale production, but where are my range pick up cases? John