Work from Home in the Philippines

Preserves are whole small fruits or vegetables or pieces of large fruits or vegetables cooked in thick syrup until clear, plump and somewhat translucent. The product retains its original shape and form. It is crisp and tender, not soft or tough. The secret of the preserve is the slow absorption of syrup by the fruit or vegetable.

How to Make Preserves

1. Selecting the fruit or vegetable. Choose mature, firm and sound fruits or vegetables. Wash and cut them into uniform sizes and shapes or leave them whole if they are small. This is done so that the fruits and vegetables will be cooked well and look attractive when arranged in jars and bottles. Fruits and vegetables should be preserved while still fresh, preferably within a few hours after they are harvested.
2. Preparation, boiling and adding the sugar. Drop the fruit or vegetable into boiling syrup.

The amount of sugar required is about ¾ to 1 cup per 1 cup of the fruit or vegetable. Sugar may be added in the following ways to suit the type of fruit or vegetable used:

1. Sprinkle juicy fruits like tomatoes and berries with sugar and let stand overnight. (This means doing the sprinkling the night before you cook them).
2. Cook juicy fruit with firm skins directly in medium syrup.
3. Put firm fruit into thin syrup to give time for softening before the syrup is too concentrated.
4. Place sour fruit directly into heavy syrup. To make syrup ,dissolve the sugar and water and boil it rapidly for five minutes. Strain the syrup before you use it.

3. Cooking the preserve. In cooking, make sure that the fruits or vegetables are covered with the syrup at all times so that the surface will not dry up and harden before the syrup has been absorbed by the pieces. Cook rapidly so that the preserve will look bright and attractive. Slow cooking produces the dull-cooking preserves.

Continue to cook preserve until tender, sparkling and glistening. The syrup is allowed to thicken as it boils with the fruit. The syrup may be concentrated by alternating cooking and resting periods. This way, the fruit or vegetable is allowed to plump or to soften while the syrup thickens because water evaporates during the rest period.

4. Finishing the preserve. Cool rapidly and plump the preserve. Put the preserve on a shallow tray or pan and run in or pour cold water underneath to cool it. This will help the fruit or vegetable retain their natural color soft and flavor. This will also allow them to plump or to become soft and tender while sugar in the syrup is being absorbed gradually.

Put preserve in sterilized jars and bottles. Meanwhile, heat the remaining syrup until it becomes thick. Then, pour the boiling syrup over the attractively-arranged preserves. Process the jars in a kettle with simmering water for about twenty minutes. After this, it is good to pour melted paraffin on top of the preserve before finally covering the jars airtight.

5. Labeling and storing. Label your product and store in a cool, dark and dry place.

Marmalade is another form of sugar concentrate which is made from pulpy fruits, preferably those high in pectin and acids contains. It is a clear, jelly-like mixture in which shreds or thin slices of fruit or peel are suspended.

How to Make Marmalade

1. Preparing the fruit. Generally, the juice and the sliced fruit are prepared separately. They are mixed only during the final boiling of the fruit and juice with sugar.

In preparing marmalade from oranges or lemons, the fruits are mixed in the proportion of ½ kilogram of lemons to 2.5 kilograms of oranges. They are sliced thinly, about 3/16 of an inch.

2. Boiling. Place the sliced fruits or peel in an aluminum or stainless steel kettle. Cover with two to three times its volume of water and boil until tender.
3. Extracting the juice. Press the pulp in heavy cloth or in two thickness of cheesecloth the fine fruit pulp.
4. Testing for pectin and acid content. Clear the jelly by letting it settle in shallow containers for 24 hours. The juice should give good pectin result and should contain at least 1% of acid expressed as citric acid. To find out the pectin and acid content of the juice, perform the same test used in jelly-making.
5. Combining peel and juice. The juice and peel are combined after the peel has been boiled until tender. If the slices are very thin and the juice is rich in pectin, add about five to seven per cent of the sliced peels to the juice. On the other hand, if slices are thick, you may add a larger proportion by weight of peel. If whole or sliced fruit is used without previous separation of the peel and juice, be sure to boil the fruit first until tender before you add the sugar.
6. Adding sugar. The amount of sugar needed depends on the composition of the juice. More sugar can be added to juices rich in pectin and acid than those deficient in one or both constituents.
7. Boiling to jellying point. The sugar, juice and peel of slices or chopped fruits are boiled to jelly point which is usually 104 degrees Celsius. A good marmalade should be of jelly-like consistency and not syrupy.
8. Cooling. It is important to cool the marmalade to allow absorption of sugar by the peel and to prevent the peel from coming to the surface instead remaining suspended.
9. Flavoring. A small amount of oranges extract added to the marmalade after boiling has been completed will improve the flavor. This is done because boiling removes much of the oranges oil from peels.
10. Packing and pasteurizing. Marmalades should be packed in vacuum-sealed glass or tin containers to reduce oxidation of the product. It should be pasteurized in water at 82 degrees Celsius except when filled and sealed or above 82 degrees Celsius .

Jams are made from crushed fruits or vegetable and their juice. They differ from jellies in the way are made. Jellies are made from juice only while jams contain both the juice and the crushed pulp of fruits and vegetable. Concentration is carried to at least 65% for all jams. Some require 68 per cent solid to achieve desired qualities. This explains why jellies are clearer than jams. Jams are made by boiling fruit or vegetable pulp until the concentration is medium thick. As the mixture of pulp, juice and sugar is boiled, the water evaporates. The concentration of juice and sugar, which also penetrates pulp, becomes thick.

How to Make Jams

1. Selecting the fruit. Choose fruit that are mature, fresh and firm. Trim the fruits to remove hard diseased portions. Wash them in clean running water. Cut uniformly into desired pieces so that cooking is even.
2. Preparing, boiling and extracting pectin from the fruit. Simmer the fruit with enough water to extract pectin. Add desired sugar and boil until the fruits are soft.
3. Testing the acidity. Add acid if fruit is not sour enough commercial acids like citric or tartaric acid can be bought from stories. It should be as sour as the standard solution of one teaspoonful of lemon or kalamansi juice mixed with ½ cup of water.
4. Testing the pectin content. Use the same test as in jelly making. If the pectin is very low, you may add fruit juice rich in pectin like papaya.
5. Testing the required amount of sugar. The usual proportion is one-half to three-fourths cup of sugar per one cup of pulp. If the fruit is moderately rich in pectin, add smaller amount of sugar. Add the fruit sugar when the skin of the fruit is completely softened, otherwise, the fruit become hard if sugar is added early.
6. Cooking the jam. After sugar has added, boil rapidly until the jam starts to set in. the secret in jam making is this cook slowly before adding the sugar and rapidly afterwards.
7. Testing the setting point. This is the point when sugar concentration reaches 60 per cent. This is also the setting point in jelly-making. If boiling is not complete, that is, when fruits are not cooked, fermentation may destroy the jam. The jam becomes watery after a few weeks. If it is overcooked, the sugar crystallizes and sugar lumps are formed.
8. Finishing the jam. As soon as the jam reaches the setting point, remove the scum by scooping it with a clean wooden spoon. Quickly pour the jam into sterilized jars and bottles. Fill up to the top to allow shrinkage. If the fruits are cooked in whole pieces, allow the jam to cool first in the kettle until a thin skin or coating begins to form on top. This is to prevent the fruit from rising to the top part of the bottle. Then stir the jam gently and pour into the jars. Cover with a layer of paraffin or gently press a piece of waxed tissue on the surface of the sun jam in each bottle. Seal tightly. Wipe each jar with clean cloth. Store the jars in the dark, cool, dry place. (Remember, molds grow in a storage place that is too hot and too damp). Good jams are bright-colored, thick and smooth when spread. They retain the natural flavor and aroma of the fruit.