Preserving Florida Citrus Fruits


 Cooking: Begin preserving in a thin syrup and cook rapidly
until fruit is clear. Rapid cooking gives a light, bright product
of good color, while slow cooking produces a dark, dull, unattrac-
tive product. Standing overnight or longer immersed in the
syrup to "plump", gives a better product in color, flavor and tex-
ture. Cover closely before removing from fire.
 Density of Syrup: Uncooked fruit should never be dropped in
a heavy syrup, as the fruit will become tough and shrivelled be-
cause the fruit juices will be drawn out too rapidly. Little syrup
can enter the fruit, since the outside of the fruit will be coated
with the heavy syrup. Hence the correct method is to build up
gradually a heavy syrup so the syrup can permeate the fruit
slowly and thoroughly, thus avoiding shrinking and toughening.
Allowing kumquats, grapefruit, etc., to stand overnight or longer
immersed in their syrup causes more of it to permeate the fruit.
In fact, much of the fruit may be prepared by very little cooking
in the syrup on the fire. It is the hot syrup in which they are
submerged that may be allowed to do the cooking. For this
reason, after being covered with the boiling syrup, the product
is set aside, allowed to stand overnight; then the syrup is drained
off, reheated, added to the fruit and the product is left to stand
as before. Larger fruits require a longer time for finishing;
smaller fruits a shorter period. The essential point is that the
syrup should permeate the fruit thoroughly. The processes are
not difficult but watchfulness, care, time and patience are required
for quality products.
 Caution: Avoid cooking a small amount of fruit in a large kettle,
as evaporation takes place too rapidly over the broad surface.
Sufficient syrup should be used to cover completely the fruit at
all times. Heavy aluminum or porcelain lined kettles are the
best to use in preserving.

 PRESERVES

 Preserved Whole Kumquats No. 1.
 2 lbs. whole kumquats 2 lbs. sugar
 (after cooking) 1 qt. water
 Thoroughly clean the kumquats-if necessary scrub fruit with
mild soap and warm water-rinse well and drain. Scald the
kumquats with boiling soda water, or sprinkle the fruit with the
dry soda (about one heaping tbsp. soda to one quart of fruit),
then cover with boiling water, and let stand in the soda bath 10