SC - period fried foods

[Jessica Tiffin]

Daniel, how thick was the syrup that you made? My suspicion is that
your proportion of sugar to water was not high enough to inhibit
the growth of the bad stuff. For instance, I believe you have to
dilute honey before it will even ferment for mead for instance.

I just checked my two bottles of rose-syrup and lime-syrup that I made
for last Candlemas and they are still fine, although I suspect I should
have removed the ginger from the lime-syrup one if I was going to let
it sit for ten months.

The following is from my jalabs-msg file:
> From: salley at niktow.canisius.edu (David Salley)
> Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
> Subject: Re: Mint/vinegar tea?
> Date: 18 Jan 94 00:07:32 GMT
> Organization: Canisius College, Buffalo NY. 14208
> 
> Just to give you an idea how long Sekanjaben "keeps", I was cleaning out the
> cupboards and came across a bottle a quarter full of Sekanjaben that Cariadoc
> had given me ... eight years ago!  Naturally, I tried it out.  Still delicious!
> 
>                                                        - Dagonell
> 
> SCA Persona : Lord Dagonell Collingwood of Emerald Lake, CSC, CK, CTr
> Habitat	    : East Kingdom, AEthelmearc Principality, Rhydderich Hael Barony

While just one person's experience, I doubt it is unique.

Stefan

> >From: Daniel Raoul
> >> As a side note the citrus syrups do need to be refrigerated, I left the
> >key
> >> lime one I made previously out and it became a science project.
> >
> >This surprises me.  I make syrups (Sekanjabin, Lemon, Rose) on a regular
> >basis and I have made an Orange one too.  In none of these cases have I
> >needed to refrigerate the syrup.
> 
> Drake putting his brewing hat on...
> 
> Maybe it's to do with the specific gravity of the liquid.  Any sugar/water mix
> is gonna eventually ferment unless you are totally sterile (hard to do in a
> normal kitchen, hell my kitchen has a wild champagne yeast infection that is
> impossible to get rid off!).  If you make the syrup dense enough (I'd be aiming
> at about 1.2 maybe?) then the osmotic pressure will be too much for yeast to
> grow.  That's how sugar preserves right.  I have been generalising here, so I'm
> sure someone will correct me somewhere...  My wife's cordials don't normally
> ferment (in fact I've got some 2 year old sekanjabin that is still
> good...scary...)
> 
> Drake. 

- -- 
THLord  Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas         stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****