Jams, Jellies, and Preserves.
The preparation of various fruits or fruit juices with sugar is an important industry both for domestic purposes and for commerce in the United States. When the fleshy portion of the fruit is treated with sugar sirup and boiled, it produces the product known as preserves. When a fruit is reduced to a pulp and treated with sugar sirup and boiled, it makes a product known as jam. When the fruit juice itself is treated with sugar and boiled, it forms a product known as jelly. The above are general definitions of three important classes of fruit products, though it is not intended by any means in the definitions to describe the details of preparation. These vary greatly in respect of the method of preparation, the fruit, the quantity of sugar used, the length of time the boiling is continued, and the consistency of the final product. These definitions merely outline the three distinct classes of products which are made from fruits.
Selection of the Fruit.—In the selection of the fruit for making these sweet products it is highly important that only the very best quality should be used. The fruit should be of a proper degree of maturity, and yet not overripe. The practice of using immature, waste, or partially deformed or decayed fruit for the purposes named cannot be too strongly condemned. The great advantage of preparing these products at the home consists in the fact that the character of the material used is under the immediate supervision of the housewife. In large factories where no official inspection is exercised it is possible that any kind of fruit or any portion of the fruit may be devoted to the purpose. All deteriorated raw material should be rigidly excluded from the factory. Various fruits are utilized in different manners in the preparation of the above-named products. Large fruits with tough skins, such as apples, peaches, and pears, are pared, the cores removed, and all decayed or infected portions cut away, and the clean, fresh, fleshy portion of the fruit used for manufacturing purposes. Small fruits, such as berries, after the exclusion of all dirt, immature or imperfect samples, and the removal of the stem, are used in the whole state for the purposes named.
It would be manifestly impracticable, as a rule, to remove even the seeds of small fruits, except where jelly is to be manufactured. The fruits, having been properly prepared, are mixed with sugar or thick sugar sirup and subjected to heat for two purposes. The first purpose of heat is to sterilize completely the material so that no bacteria, germs, or spores may be left alive in the finished product. The second purpose of heating is to concentrate the material to a proper consistence and to thoroughly saturate all portions with sugar sirup. Incidentally, the heating also by the combined action of temperature and free acids in the fruit inverts a large quantity of the cane sugar that is used and thus prevents the finished product from granulating. The crystallization of the sugar in these bodies renders them very much
