Atlanta women's club cook book

7. Label and store products in a cool, dry, dark place. SYRUPS. In the instructions for canning fruits, syrups of appropriate density for standard products are indicated. These are made of varying densities, as indicated by a Balling saccharometer. Each syrup indicated by number represents the degrees from 10 to 50 degrees. No. 1 syrup is of 10 degrees density. No. 2 of 20 degrees density, and so on. To make these syrups, boil sugar and water together in the proportion given below until sugar is dissolved. Strain all impurities out of the syrup before using : Syrup No, 1 use 14 oz. to 1 gal. water. Syrup No. 2 use 1 lb. 14 oz. to 1 gal. water. Syrup No. 3 use 3 lb. 9 oz. to 1 gal. water. Syrup No. 4 use 5 lb. 8 oz. to 1 gal. water. Syrup No. 5 use 6 lb. 13 oz. to 1 gal. water. PRESERVING. A preserve is the product resulting when fruits are cooked in syrup until clear and transparent. When properly made the fruit in the preserve keeps its form, is plump, tender, clear and of good color; the surrounding syrup is also clear and of proper density. In making preserves, the object is to have the fruit permeated with the syrup. It is well known that if two liquids of different densities be brought into contact with each other, they tend to mix or diffuse until they equalize each other and become of equal density. This diffusion takes place through the cell walls of fruit or vegetables as readily as if they were not present between the fruit juice and the denser liquid syrup. When fruit is placed at once in a very heavy syrup, the difference in density between the two liquids is so great that the syrup absorbs the fruit juice so rapidly that the fruit shrinks and becomes shriveled and toughened. The syrup can then enter the fruit with great difficulty. In order to prevent this shrinking it is necessary to put fruit at first in thin syrup and increase its density slowly enough for diffusion to take place and the fruit be permeated with the syrup. This is done by boiling the fruit in syrup or by alternately cooking and allowing the product to stand immersed in the syrup, the density of the syrup being increased by evaporation or by substituting a heavier syrup for the lighter one after each period of standing. If at any time the fruit shrivels or wrinkles, the syrup should be made less dense by the addition of water. If this process be carried on gradually enough the fruit may be completely saturated with sugar (as is the case with crystalized products) without shrinking. JAMS AND MARMALADES. In making jam the whole fruit is used, but prepared in such a way as to give a mixture alike throughout, not having the fruit remain whole and the syrup clear as in preserves. The small fruits are ordinarily used for jams, while larger ones are sliced and made into marmalades in which the product is not smooth in consistency, but has the fruit appearing in small pieces throughout the mixture. GRAPE MARMALADE.