[Sca-cooks] sekanjabin, was: Freezing tarts.

[Haraldr Bassi]

Greetings,

Something I do with mine that most other people I've talked to don't is steep the mint or the 
ginger in the syrup overnight. Then the next morning, I sieve out the solids and bottle it. I 
toss a cinnamon stick into the mint syrup if I have any on-hand. Ginger syrup goes as is. Serves 
at about a 10:1 (reduce to 12:1 for very strong syrup) ratio of water to syrup. A 1/2 gallon 
mason jar makes a 5 gal water barrel full.

Key, at least in my experience, is to heat the water/vinegar mixture, slowly adding sugar and 
letting it absorb until all 5lbs are in suspension as a syrup. Adding the sugar too fast seems 
to be more counter productive. It eventually works, just seems to act differently.

Once it's a syrup, add the flavoring (mint or shredded ginger root) and then remove from heat. 
Leave covered overnight.

Seems to me that adding the water to the vinegar will dilute the acidity of the vinegar and 
provide more liquid for sugar suspension. Since vinegar comes in different acidity levels, the 
water:vinegar ratio might need to be adjusted for optimum. 2:1 water:vinegar seems to be a 
decent starting ratio. The 3 qts liquid seems to also be a good quantity for a 5lb bag of sugar 
(if that size is still available these days).

Haraldr Bassi


On 8/30/11 6:20 PM, Sayyeda al-Kaslaania wrote:
> I simmer it for substantially longer to burn off the back-of-the-throat-vinegar-bite. The syrup
> coats the back of a spoon like Dayquil when I'm done. I also add handfuls of mint, rather than
> sprigs, and add it as soon as the sugar is fully dissolved. Use cider vinegar or wine vinegar--
> white vinegar is... really good for cleaning.
>
> * 6 cups sugar
> * 10 cups water
> * 4 cups wine vinegar
> * pick one:
> o 1 cup mint, dried
> o 2 oz cinnamon
>
>
> Sayyeda al-Kaslaania
>
>
>> I got this after a batch I particularly enjoyed, I don't know how
>> close it is to an original:
>>
>> 4 cups white sugar
>> 2 cups water
>> 1 cup vinegar
>> 3 or 4 sprigs of mint
>> Bring sugar and water to a boil
>> Add vinegar and simmer about 20 minutes
>> Remove from heat, then add the mint and stir in and let it cool with
>> the mint in, then strain it out when cooled.
>> I have made it with the mint in while cooking and it seems to have
>> less mint flavour.
>>
>> Eyrny
>> _______________________________________________
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