FoodNet

Experimental cookery

1932

Page 136

Presented as published in 1932. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
3. A cup of juice and ^ cup of sugar. 4. A cup of juice and 1 cup of sugar. 5. A cup of juice and 1J4 cups of sugar. Some idea of the amount of sugar to use can be obtained from the alcohol test. With gooseberry juice and using the larger quantity of alcohol for the test, the approximate proportion of sugar required for a cup of juice can be estimated from the character of the precipitated pectin. After mixing, turn the pectin and alcohol out in a dish. If the pectin precipitate can be picked up in one piece without breaking and feels firm, about \%. to 1 1/3 cups of sugar will be required; if the pectin precipitate can be picked up in one piece without breaking but does not feel firm, about 1 to 1^ cups of sugar will be necessary; but if the precipitate breaks into two pieces when picked up, about ^ to J^ cup of sugar is required. If the precipitate is flocculent the juice needs concentrating or only ^2 cup or less of sugar can be used. A still easier way to determine the best pro- portion of sugar to add is to determine the viscosity with a jellmeter. Sugar, pectin, acid, and salt. As can be ascertained from the previous discussion there is a relation between proportion of pectin, sugar, acid, and salts, temperature to which the pectin is heated, and time of pouring. Increases and decreases of constituents may be made within certain limits. Salts in the fruit juice or added to it may aid jelly formation or hinder 168 JELLY and delay it, according to whether they tend to precipitate or stabilize the pectin. Inversion of sugar in jelly making. The saturation point of a sucrose solution at room temperature or 20°C. is 67 per cent. Thus jellies containing more than 67 per cent of sucrose at 20°C. are super- saturated, unless something has occurred to the sugar. The pectin tends to keep the sugar from crystallizing from solution, acting as a protective colloid. But even this protective action would not always be great enough to keep the sugar from crystallizing wdth a concentration of sugar that is increased to 70 per cent or over. When sucrose is heated with acid, some of the sucrose is inverted to dextrose and levulose. The amount of inverted sugar formed during jelly making depends upon the acidity of the fruit juice and the length of time of boiling with the sugar. Since there are three sugars in the finished jelly the percentage or total sugar that can be held in the finished jelly without crystallization occurring is increased. Tarr and Baker report that in a solution containing a mixture of sucrose, dextrose, and levulose, the total maximum solubility is obtained with the proportions of each sugar show^n in Table 23 (obtained from Bureau of Standards). At 20°C. if inversion has occurred to obtain maximum solubility, about 75.7 per cent of sugar is soluble. Thus jelly containing about 70 per cent of sugar is not necessarily supersaturated. The salts and organic con- stituents of the fruit juice may also increase the solubility of the sugar in a given solution. Rate of inversion in different fruit juices. Tarr and Baker have determined the rate of inversion of sucrose during jelly making with equivalent solutions of sulfuric, tartaric, and citric acids. As would be TABLE 23 Total Maximum Solubility with Cane Sugar and Invert Sugar {Tarr and Baker) Temperature, °C. Grams of cane sugar per 100 grams solution