Fruit Ecaporatioa — The Handmaid of Hortifu/furc. 195 



In most processes of manufacture, the principal objects sought are to give 

 greater stabihty, or lessen the liabiUty to change in the product; or, by new 

 chemical combinations, to produce a new and more valuable article, and so 

 it is by the chemical change which I have described when the water and 

 fruit-starch unite in true evaporation to produce another and more valuable 

 compound, not only as an article of food, but one less liable to decomposition 

 and waste. 



And this is also the reason why a bushel of apples will make more pounds 

 of evaporated fruit than can be made by sun-drying it — precisely as a loaf 

 i)f bread weighs more than the flour of which it was made by combining 

 and retaining a portion of the water or other fluids used in mixing — and it 

 also explains, what seems so strange to housekeepers, that evaporated fruit 

 does not require as much sugar in cooking it as that which is green or sun- 

 dried. All the changes wrought in the fruit by true evaporation are in exact 

 accordance witli the laws of nature, and are certain to take place if the 

 necessary conditions are properly supplied. 



They are wholesome changes, as they destroy the natural ferment of the 

 fruit, preserve the albumen, gluten and other perishable constituents in a 

 digestible and nutritious form and are valuable, as they result in an in- 

 creased weight of product over sun-drying and in a more permanent and 

 valuable form. 



If the proper amount of h- at and air are not supplied, and in the right 

 manner, you will have a difTerent product. No matter how fine your apples,^ 

 how perfect the paring, coring and trimming, or how white you may have 

 bleached them, you have net made truly evaporated fruit, and no matter how 

 many have been deceived by its bright color, full weight and fancy packing, 

 your fruit will not stand the test of long keeping in warm, damp weather. 



If the diastase has not been destroyed by sufficient heat, but retains its 

 vitality, and the starch has not been transformed into grape sugar, but has 

 been merely dried down with the albumen and gluten, the work of decom- 

 position and destruction is liable to begin whenever the conditions of 

 warmth and moisture are supplied, and the fruit will absorb moisture, will 

 soften, and swell or increase in bulk, get moldy and sour, and finally decay. 



The bright, light color of good evaporated fruit is produced by the fumes 

 of burning sulphur, which was once used for the sole purpose of bleaching 

 it, but its greatest benefit when properly used is to assist in the conversion 

 of the soluable starch in the fruit into grape sugar. The sulphur fumes- 

 (SO2) are absorbed by the moisture upon the surface of the fruit, and then 

 we have sulphurous acid (H2 SO.;), which, as it comes in conract with the 

 starch at a heat of from 190° to 200° Fahr., by its presence only aids to convert 

 it into grape sugar or glucose, as I have before stated. All these changes 

 are controlled by natural laws, which are as definite and unvarying as any 

 other law of nature, and no wisdom or ingenuity of man can change them. 



In speaking of evaporation as now understood, I have only outlined the 

 principal features which distinguish it from sun-drying or in slow kilns, and 



