The Utensils Used. — The best vessels to use in cooking fruits for
preserves or canning are aluminum, porcelaindined kettles or yellow
ware dishes. Never use tin vessels, as the acid of the fruit acts on
the tin and the poisonous acetate of lead is formed. To cook the
fruit equally throughout, the vessel should be rather large in
diameter and not too deep; if too much heaped the fruit will not
cook evenly. Close fitting covers should be provided, and put on
after the scum has done rising, so as to retain the flavor of the fruit
with the steam. Wire sieves and iron pots destroy the flavor and
should not be used. Copper or brass kettles should be scoured very
bright with salt and vinegar before being used, and the fruit removed
at once on taking it from the fire, but even then some of the poison-
ous verdigris will be formed by the action of the acids on the metal.
Porcelain^lined vessels are much better. Aluminum vessels are
excellent to use, because the citric, malic and other acids found in
fruits do not aflPect that metal.
Fruit should be stirred with either an aluminum, silver or wood-
en spoon — the latter is best. Iron, tin or pewter ones will spoil the
color.
The Pbinoiples Involved, — -Although the sugar passes easily into the state of
fermentation, and is in fact the only substance capable of undergoing the vinous
stage of that process, it will not ferment at all if the quantity be suificient to con-
stitute a very strong syrup; hence syrups are used to preserve fruits and other
vegetable substances from ttie changes they would undergo if left to themselves.
Before sugar was in use honey was employed in preserving, but it is now replaced
by sugar. In putting up juice or fruit, the object is to boil it with sugar to such a
consistency that it will neither ferment nor mildew.
In boiling most fruits, it is best to boil them in water first, and add the sugar
when the fruit has become soft and the juice is drawn out. The first object in
preserving fruit is to soften it by boiling in water, so that the sugar by which it is
preserved may penetrate all through it, and so preserve it well. The more thor-
oughly the skimming is done the clearer the preserves will be.
Fruit jellies owe their jelly=like consistency to the presence of a sort of gum =
like substance which they contain called pectose, or pectic acid. This substance,
although soluble in fruit juice, when mixed with sugar, exposed to heat, and
cooled, will coagulate. Although in appearance so much resembling gelatine, from
a chemical standpoint it is entirely different, being nearly allied to guvi, but it has
about the same food value as the sugar with which it is mixed. The pectose di.)es
not develop in fruit until it begins to ripen, but as soon as the fruit is over-ripe it
490 JAMS, JELLIES, PRESERVES, ETC.
loses its gelatinizing property. For jellies, therefore, fruit should be gathered ar,
soon as fully ripe, or just a little before. Overscooking jelly also destroys the gel-
atinizing properties of the pectose.
The chemical composition of the various preserves is simply the composition of
the fruit juice and fruit itself, with the loss of a few volatile constituents, and
the addition of cane sugar.
Page 362
Presented as published in 1902. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
The Utensils Used. — The best vessels to use in cooking fruits for preserves or canning are aluminum, porcelain-lined kettles or yellow ware dishes.Never use tin vessels, as the acid of the fruit acts on the tin and the poisonous acetate of lead is formed. To cook the fruit equally throughout, the vessel should be rather large in diameter and not too deep; if too much heaped the fruit will not cook evenly. Close fitting covers should be provided, and put on after the scum has done rising, so as to retain the flavor of the fruit with the steam. Wire sieves and iron pots destroy the flavor and should not be used. Copper or brass kettles should be scoured very bright with salt and vinegar before being used, and the fruit removed at once on taking it from the fire, but even then some of the poisonous verdigris will be formed by the action of the acids on the metal. Porcelain-lined vessels are much better. Aluminum vessels are excellent to use, because the citric, malic and other acids found in fruits do not aflPect that metal.
Fruit should be stirred with either an aluminum, silver or wooden spoon — the latter is best. Iron, tin or pewter ones will spoil the color.
The Principles Involved, — -Although the sugar passes easily into the state of fermentation, and is in fact the only substance capable of undergoing the vinous stage of that process, it will not ferment at all if the quantity be sufficient to constitute a very strong syrup; hence syrups are used to preserve fruits and other vegetable substances from ttie changes they would undergo if left to themselves. Before sugar was in use honey was employed in preserving, but it is now replaced by sugar. In putting up juice or fruit, the object is to boil it with sugar to such a consistency that it will neither ferment nor mildew.
In boiling most fruits, it is best to boil them in water first, and add the sugar when the fruit has become soft and the juice is drawn out. The first object in preserving fruit is to soften it by boiling in water, so that the sugar by which it is preserved may penetrate all through it, and so preserve it well. The more thoroughly the skimming is done the clearer the preserves will be.
Fruit jellies owe their jelly-like consistency to the presence of a sort of gum-like substance which they contain called pectose, or pectic acid. This substance, although soluble in fruit juice, when mixed with sugar, exposed to heat, and cooled, will coagulate. Although in appearance so much resembling gelatine, from a chemical standpoint it is entirely different, being nearly allied to guvi, but it has about the same food value as the sugar with which it is mixed. The pectose does not develop in fruit until it begins to ripen, but as soon as the fruit is over-ripe it
490 JAMS, JELLIES, PRESERVES, ETC.
loses its gelatinizing property. For jellies, therefore, fruit should be gathered ar, soon as fully ripe, or just a little before. Overscooking jelly also destroys the gelatinizing properties of the pectose.
The chemical composition of the various preserves is simply the composition of the fruit juice and fruit itself, with the loss of a few volatile constituents, and the addition of cane sugar.