SWEETENED CONDENSED MILK DEFECTS 19,5 



on a large wire mesh strainer (about eighty meshes to the inch) 

 which stretches across the sugar well and allows hot milk to run 

 over this sugar into the well below. In this way the sugar 

 crystals must dissolve before they can reach the sugar well. 



One of the safest methods of insuring complete solution of 

 the cane sugar is to dissolve it in a separate kettle in a sufficient 

 quantitiy of boiling water (preferably distilled water) and boil- 

 ing the syrup for five to fifteen minutes. If the syrup thus made 

 is given a few minutes rest it should become perfectly clear; 

 by its clearness, the purity of the sugar can also be observed. 

 If a scum forms at the top it should be removed ; then the hot 

 sugar syrup is drawn into the pan. Care should be taken that 

 the milk already condensing in the pan has not become too con- 

 centrated, otherwise sugar crystallization may set in. It is ad- 

 visable to inject the sugar syrup gradually, rather than to wait 

 until nearly all the milk is in the pan. 



Excessive Chilling in the Pan. The cause of grittiness of 

 condensed milk may lie in the pan itself. Where the water used 

 for condensing is very cold, and where one end of the spray 

 pipe in the condenser is very close to the goose neck of the pan, 

 as is the case with most of the vacuum pans in use, which are 

 equipped with horizontal spray condenser the chilling of the 

 vapors and of the spray of milk rising from the pan is so 

 sudden, that sugar crystals are prone to form in the spray and 

 along the walls of the pan. These crystals either stick to the 

 side of the pan, or fall back into the milk where they later multiply 

 and cause the milk to become sugary. Trouble from this source 

 can be avoided by either raising the temperature of the water 

 that goes to the condenser which is, however, not practical under 

 most conditions, or by closing the holes in that portion of the 

 spray pipe which is nearest the pan. This can easily be done 

 by wrapping a piece of galvanized iron or tinplate around the 

 portion of the spray pipe to be closed, or by filling the holes 

 with solder, or by replacing the old spray pipe by a new and 

 shorter one, properly constructed. 



Superheating at End of Batch. Sometimes the manufac- 

 turer is persistently troubled with the appearance of crystals in 

 the condensed milk of monstrous size, as large as rice kernels; 

 this condition arrives usually very gradually. During the first 



