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Home and Farm Food Preservation
Food Preservation Recipes
Chapter XXIII - Recipes for Sirups


Sirups for table use and for cooking purposes may be made in the kitchen or in a small way on the farm with the materials found at hand or constructed at small expense. Usually, these home made sirups will not be as light colored as the factory made products but will be of pleasing flavor, if carefully prepared. Grapes and apples are especially well suited to the manufacture of sirups. Sorghum is also excellent. The general principles of sirup manufacture will be found in Chapter VIII.

(51) Fruit Sirups for Cooking Purposes.

1. Crush the fruit and press out the juice. Apples and berries may be heated to boiling after crushing to facilitate extraction of the juice.

2. Heat the pressed juice to boiling and filter through a jelly bag or other form of filter until clear. The juice may also be clarified by methods described in Recipe 50. This will give a clearer and more attractive sirup.

3. Boil the juice down rapidly in a shallow pan. Long boiling causes the sirup to be dark colored and of poor flavor. The hot sirup should finally test 63% Balling or 35° Baumé or must be boiled until it becomes of the desired consistency.

4. Pack the sirup boiling hot into scalded jars or bottles and seal at once. Sirup that tests 63° Balling hot or 68° Balling cold will keep without packing hot in scalded jars or bottles. The sugar test is not necessary if the sirup is sealed hot.

Sirups made as above are suitable for use in mincemeat etc., but are somewhat too sour for table use. Grapes and apples are the most suitable fruits for this purpose.

(52) Fruit Sirups for Table Use.

1. Clarify the fruit juice. To do this, heat to boiling and strain till clear or clarify according to Recipe 50.

2. Divide into two lots representing 1/4 and 3/4 of the juice respectively.

3. To 3/4 of the juice add 2 oz. (3 tablespoonfuls) of precipitated chalk per gallon. Heat to boiling and allow to stand overnight. Filter through a jelly bag to remove the chalk. The juice may also be treated with baking soda instead of chalk. Add the soda in small amounts until there is no longer any acid taste. Do not add too much soda.

4. To the filtered juice add the 1/4 of untreated juice. Boil the juice down to a sirup and seal boiling hot in bottles or jars. This sirup is less acid than that made by the preceding recipe and can be used on griddle cakes, etc.

Precipitated chalk may be bought from any drug store. Ground limestone may also be used. It is harmless.

(53) Fruit Sirups by Sun Evaporation. (See Chap. VIII, par. 35.)

1. Crush the fruit, press out the juice and strain or filter it until clear.

2. Place the juice in a shallow pan or make a shallow wooden water-tight trough. Place whole apparatus in a sunny place. Hang from a clothesline or other support above the container several strips of cheesecloth. (See Fig. 29 for diagram of such an arrangement.) Dip the cloths in the juice and hang them above the pan or trough. In a few minutes the juice will dry to a sirup on the cloth. Dip them in the juice; wring out the sirup into the juice; dip again and hang up to dry. Repeat this until the sirup reaches 65% to 68% Balling or 35% to 37% Baumé. (See Chap. II, par. 11, for use of these testers.) Store in bottles or jars.

This sirup will have a great (leal of the fresh fruit flavor and may be diluted as a beverage or may he used in cooking. Sirups for table use may he made in a similar way by modifying Recipe 52 accordingly.

(54) Fruit Sirups made by the Addition of Sugar.

Highly flavored and tart juices may often be sweetened with sugar to give heavy sirups suitable for use in soda fountains or as bases for home made beverages.

1. Lemon, Orange and Grape Fruit Sirups. Grate off the oil cells from 1/2 doz. fruits. To the gratings add 2 1/2 lbs. of sugar and 1 pint of the juice of the fruit used. Warm until sugar dissolves. Stir and allow to stand with occasional stirring for three or four days. Press through a cloth to remove gratings.

2. Pomegranate, red grape juice, strawberry, loganberry, raspberry, and blackberry juices may be made by adding 1 3/4 lbs. sugar to each pint of juice. This sirup will keep without sterilization.

(55) a. Sorghum Sirup. Home Recipe.

1. Crush the green sugar sorghum canes. A food chopper may be used for small scale work; for larger scale work a cane mill will be needed. The ground cane may be boiled with a small amount of water and pressed a second time.

2. Heat the juice to boiling and strain until clear.

3. Boil down until the sirup will test 63% hot or 68% Balling cold, or until of desired consistency. Seal hot in scalded jars, bottles, or cans.

(55) b. Manufacture of Sorghum on Small Commercial Scale.

1. Equipment. Small horse power mill (see Fig.); galvanized iron or copper evaporating pan 8 to 10 ft. long (see Fig.); portable furnace for pan; settling pan at crusher about 6 to 8 ft. long to permit settling of juice (this pan may be made of galvanized iron to receive juice at upper end of pan and to allow settled juice to flow out at lower end into a settling tank); settling tank or barrel of 50 gals. capacity for fresh juice; two open 50 gal. barrels; skimmer for use during boiling of sirup; 10 or 15 gal. open barrels or tubs with spigot, to be placed above and at one end of evaporating pan to supply juice to pan; several buckets and dippers.

2. Varieties of Sorghum.. Honey Sorghum, Orange Sorghum, Red Amber Sorghum, and Gooseneck Sorghum are all good varieties. Plant quick maturing varieties in Eastern states and late maturing varieties in California.

3. Harvesting. Strip off leaves from canes when seed is almost ripe; cut canes at 6 to 8 inches from ground. Cut off seed heads and haul stripped cane to the mill at once. Leaves and seed heads spoil the flavor of sirup and make it hard to clear, therefore, they should be used for forage only and not for sirup.

4. Press juice from stripped cane by running it through a sorghum mill (see Fig.). The mill is set on supports so that bottom of rollers is about 40 inches from the ground and is operated by a sweep fastened to top of rollers and drawn by one or two horses. Power mills may be used for larger factories.

5. Allow juice from mill to flow continuously through settling pan and from settling pan into a 50 gal. settling tank.

6. Heat to boiling and allow to settle 4 or 5 hours in settling tank. This can be done by running the juice through the pan at such a rate that it will be heated to boiling but not concentrated to a sirup. Skim off floating material and draw settled juice off from sediment. The settled juice is used for sirup; the sediment may be used for stock feed or strained and used for sirup.

7. Fill the evaporating pan with the juice and boil down to a sirup. Allow sirup to flow from the pan and the juice to flow into the pan at such a rate that the sirup tests when hot, 36° to 40° Baumé or 65° to 73° Balling or Brix. A very hot fire is essential; quick burning wood is best; crude oil can be used if a special burner is installed.

8. Allow sirup to settle 4 or 5 hours in a shallow vessel. Draw it off and fill into sirup cans or kegs.

Sorghum sirup outfits may be obtained from dealers in farm machinery. (See par. 12, and par. 46, for description of sugar and sirup testers.)

(56) Sugar Beet Sirup.

1. Wash and cut in thin slices. The thinner the slices the better.

2. Place slices in a pot and barely cover with water. Bring to the simmering point or to 175° to 180° F. and keep at this temperature about 45 min. Strain off the hot sugary liquid through a cheesecloth. It is not necessary to press the beets. A second more dilute juice can be obtained by heating the slices with fresh water.

3. Strain the juice till fairly clear. Boil down rapidly to a heavy sirup and skim off material that comes to the surface. Seal hot in scalded jars, bottles, or cans. This sirup will be dark colored but is suitable for some forms of cooking and for table use.


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