PRESERVING FRUIT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 December 1942, Page 4

PRESERVING FRUIT

1 > WITHOUT USE OF SUGAR 1 ; METHODS DETAILED. ? RETENTION OF VITAMINS. Fruits which are highly acid, such as , gooseberries, black currants, red and white 1 currants, may be preserved without sugar. ■ As these fruits are valuable sources of 1 vitamin C it is advisable to preserve as ■ many as possible of them this season, states [ a Department of Health circular. Make sure that bottle lids and rubbers are thoroughly clean. The method may be one of several. Fortunately with these acid fruits, very little loss of vitamin value occurs which ever method is used. The easiest method is to pack the fruit into clean jars,'put in a portion of the water needed to cover them, roll the jars, or use a clean stick to get the air out; then add water until the level is about % inch from the top of the jar. Put on the lids with clean rubbers in position. With the screw top type of jar, screw the lid on firmly and then give half a turn back. With the glass top type, put the tops on but do not fix them down tightly. Stand the jars in a saucepan or preserving pan. either with a cloth or a wooden base at the bottom of the pan to stand the jars on; coveithe jars with water; do not fail to take the precaution of having the water over the top ' of the jars, for this secures proper sterilisa- : tion of the lids. Bring the water to the ■ boil, keep boiling for twenty minutes to half an hour, then remove the jars and im1 mediately screw them down tightly. Invert . till they are cool to see whether they are i air tight. , By cooking the fruit first in an aluminium ’ or enamel pan, us(ng only a small quantity ’ of water, space can be saved by filling the ■ jars to Vi inch from the top with the pureed cooked fruit. The jars should then be immersed in the pan of water as above and kept at boiling temperature for twenty minutes. Gooseberries done this way may be used for making gooseberry fool,’ and this has the advantage of not requiring much sugar, for you take some of the acidity off by means of eggs or milk or cream mixed in with it. USE OF SODA. When highly acid fruits are used for making cooked deserts, a pinch of soda may be added to every breakfast-cupful ■ without impairing the vitamin content of the fruit; the reason being that the fruit is so highly acid that it is still markedly acid in re- I action when the soda has been added. In this way, the addition of soda reduces the amount of sugar needed for sweetening the fruit, and yet (unlike what is liable to happen with putting soda into. the water when vegetables are cooking) the vitamin C is not destroyed because the.frujt is still acid. This means that you are still warned not to use soda when cooking vegetables. Before trying the addition of soda to a large quantity of fruit, try jt out on a small quantity in order to see whether your family notices the taste conferred on it by the soda. Instead of soda a teaspoonful of precipitated calcium carbonate may be used. In order to prevent the fruit from frothing up and boiling over, add a small piece of butter. The precipitated calcium carbonate 1 may with advantage be used in cooking rhu- 1 barb, in order to neutralise the effect cf ] the oxalic acid in it. Rhubarb is a useful source of vitamin C. (Blackboard chalk is ] not suitable, as it ic composed of calcium ( sulphate). TOMATOES. ' Tomatoes should be preserved, because I they are rich in vitamin C. The easiest me- ) thod is to halve the tomatoes (using a stain- | less knife) and put them into jars; enough ( juice comes out of the tomatoes to make it t unnecessary to add any water. They may , then be processed in the pan of water, as for black currants and gooseberries, for 20 1 minutes, using the method described above, E The Nutrition Research Department has t found that very little loss of vitamin occurs c by the above “cold pack” methods, and j they are very simple to do. Use as many of your preserving jars this year as you can for: (1) black currants; (2) gooseberries; (3) red currants and white 1 currants; (4) tomatoes; (5) tree tomatoes. Also for .apricots which are useful, not for t vitamin C, but for iron and vitamin A. t And don’t forget -to preserve rose hip s syrup! ■ v