Page:Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management.djvu/1265

Rh it may be made into preserve or jam that will keep, though of course of inferior quality. There is no mistake more common than to suppose that any half-ripe or over-ripe fruit is good enough for jam.

Sugar for Preserving.—Of the various kinds of sugar in common use, the white refined lump is generally sold for preserving, and, indeed, is the only kind admissible for the more delicate kinds of preserves. Coarse brown sugar conceals the flavour of any fruit, and the whiter moist sugar has little sweetening power. Crystallized Demerara makes good preserves, is very sweet, seldom adulterated, and is less expensive than lump sugar, so that for common household preserves it is very suitable. A well-known writer says: "Sugar-candy is the purest form of sugar; white loaf sugar comes next; then the pale, dry, large-grained crystallized sugars; while all the moist sugars are of inferior purity, invariably containing not only water and uncrystallizable sugar, but also mineral and organic compounds. They are not infrequently infested by a small insect, the sugar-mite, many thousands of which have been detected in a single pound of brown sugar." Cane-sugar and grape-sugar, otherwise known as sucrose and glucose, are obtained from various sources. Most of the cane-sugar consumed in England is actually produced from the sugar-cane, but of beet-root sugar there is much in the market, and in America sugar is produced from the maple, from maize, and from the "sugar grass." From a chemical point of view they are the same, and from a culinary one nearly so, though inference in sweetening power and in crystallization undoubtedly affect flavours. Grape-sugar abounds in grapes and in many other fruits, and it may also be manufactured. It does not crystallize as cane-sugar does, and is not nearly so sweet, so that the admixture of grape with cane-sugar is an adulteration greatly to the disadvantage of the purchaser, though in no way unwholesome. Jams made with pure cane-sugar are apt to crystallize, or become granular; to prevent this glucose is added. If only a small proportion is used, it can hardly be considered an adulterant. When a strong solution of sugar is allowed to solidify slowly and undisturbed, it deposits large crystals, such as we see in sugar-candy: if it is agitated the crystals are small, as in loaf sugar. But if the solution is heated up to a certain point it does not crystallize any more, but settles into a solid transparent mass which we know as barley sugar, so called because the old confectioners found that its return to the crystalline condition took place less quickly if boiled in barley water instead of water only. Any acid or mucilaginous matter helps forward the production of this particular form of sugar. When sugar is heated to about 400° F. it decomposes, loses its power of crystallizing and fermenting, and acquires a dark-brown colour and a bitter flavour. This form of sugar is known as caramel; when it is heated beyond this stage it becomes burnt and unfit for use.

Syrup for Preserving.—Having secured the most important contributions to the manufacture of preserves, the fruit and the sugar, the next