Principles of Jelly-Making 1255 



beet sugar versus ordinary cane sugar 



A question concerning the relative merits of beet sugar and cane sugar 

 in jelly-making has occasionally been asked. Our experiments showed 

 that when the two sugars were equally pure, there was no difference in 

 the texture, taste, or appearance of jellies made therefrom. The only 

 difference observed was that the volume of jelly produced from a given 

 amount of juice and sugar was slightly less when beet sugar was used than 

 when cane sugar was used. This difference being considered negligible, 

 the two sugars may be used interchangeably. 



NATURE OF PECTIN 



Perhaps it may be interesting to explain that pectin, the fundamental 

 jelly-making substance of fruit juices, the gelatinizing material that makes 

 these juices " jell," is a substance that is apparently akin to starch 

 chemically; it has no relationship whatever to gelatin. Like starch, it 

 is made up of the elements carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen; while gelatin, 

 in addition to these elements, contains nitrogen. Moreover, pectin is 

 of vegetable origin, while gelatin is of animal origin. 



SUMMARY 



The principal points made in the foregoing may be briefly summarized 

 as follows: 



1. Fruit juice to be used for jelly-making must contain pectin. It 

 must also be acidic. 



2. Juices that are to be used for jelly-making should be extracted by 

 cooking them out of the fruit. 



3. The most common cause of failure in jelly-making is an overpro- 

 portion of sugar to juice — that is, to the pectin in the juice. 



4. A short, quick test in jelly-making is preferable to a test that involves 

 a waste of time. 



5. There need be no " second " quality of jelly. All may be of first 

 quality if the juice is properly extracted and handled. 



6. Experiments, thus far, indicate that the mean-boiling process in 

 jelly-making is preferable to the long-boiling or the short-boiling process, 



7. Any juice, when once the boiling is begun, should be transfomied 

 into jelly as rapidly as possible. 



8. The time necessary for the boiling of a quantity of jelly apparently 

 varies with several factors: the proportion of sugar to juice, the propor- 

 tion of pectin in the juice, and possibly, too, with the acidity of the juice. 



9. The hot jellies should be poured at once into hot steriHzed glasses, 

 and after having " set " should be carefully sealed. 



