SC - birch

[Michael P Newton]

Greetings, especially to Julleran.  I went to my modern candy-making 
book to see if there was anything that might hint why Julleran's apple 
paste/candy was sticky.  They do mention that for fruit pastes the 
proportion of fruit to sugar is "usually a quantity equal in volume to 
the pureed fruit.  During cooking the fruit's natural moisture 
partially evaporates and the puree thickens.  At the same time, the 
sugar forms a dense syrup that hardens and helps the puree to set firm 
when the paste is spread out for cooling.  Some cooks employ an 
alternative method of preparation in which a soft-crack or hard-crack 
syrup is combined with a thick, cooked puree; the resulting paste is 
then cooled until firm.

"Once set, a fresh-fruit paste can be shaped by hand in the same way as 
a dried-fruit paste or it can be cut into flat individual pieces.  Like 
pieces of dried-fruit paste. these cam be stored between sheets of 
parchment or wax paper in an airtight container, where they will keep 
almost indefinitely."

The instructions for the fresh fruit happened to use apples.  The 
apples were cut into wedges with the core and the skin left in/on. 
(Both will contribute pectin, needed to "jell" the candy.) A little 
water was added to keep the fruit from sticking to the pan.  The pan 
was covered and the fruit cooked over low heat until soft, about 20-40 
minutes for apples.  The fruit was then removed and left to cook.  The 
pulp was then pressed through a strainer or through a food mill.  The 
peel and seeds were discarded.

The puree is cooked in a non-reactive pot with an equal amount of 
sugar.  It is stirred over low heat for an hour (until the puree forms 
a paste so thick that the spoon leaves a trail on the bottom of the 
pan).  Then it's removed from the heat, spooned into a shallow (lightly 
buttered) pan and left to cook until it sets.

Julleran - How does this compare with what you did?

Alys
============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================