Dec. 1895.] 



EVAPORATION OF FRTTTT» 



268 



Most ingenious and handy machines, worked by manual or 

 steam power, for paring, coring, and slicing apples are also 

 to be obtained at very cheap rates, suitable for small and 

 large holdings. By the turn of a wheel an apple is pared, 

 cored, and sliced, ready for evaporation. There are machines 

 also for cutting apples into quarters and extracting the core, 

 as well as for slicing them hito " ringlets." It is said that a 

 woman with one of the paring and coring machines can pare and 

 core more than 2h bushels of apples in an hour. There are also 

 ingenious little machines for stoning cherries and plums. 



Upon many fruit farms in America, fruit is evaporated by the 

 grower. Sometimes he evaporates that which is not of first 

 grade, sometimes that of the best quality. This depends upon 

 circumstances of price and the extent of the crop. There are 

 also man}^ factories supplied by producers with fruit for 

 evaporating. In some cases, the fruit is bought upon the trees 

 by the factory agents, in order that the important processes of 

 picking and grading may be supervised. 



Whether for table or for evaporating purposes, apples are always 

 picked most carefully iind graded. And for the best quality of 

 evaporated fruit, known as wliite fruit, it is necessary to select 

 the best apples. The flavour and general quality are not altered 

 by evaporation, and it would be manifestly wrong to evaporate 

 good and indifferent fruit together. 



Apples are evaporated whole, with the cores taken out, in 

 halves, in quarters, and in " chips/' or ringlets." Whole 

 apples, halves, and quarters are put on the drying trays as 

 closely together as possible, but in single layers. Slices, chips, 

 and ringlets are laid flat, or packed closely together in rows. In 

 the latter form, longer time is taken to arrange and dry the 

 fruit, but nearly three times the amount can be put into 

 a tray. 



When apples are cut, there is, as is well known, a rapid 

 oxidation from the air causing blackness. The cut fruit is 

 therefore put as quickly as possible into the evaporator on the 

 packed trays. But the general practice is to put the packed 

 trays flrst into a blanching chamber and expose the fruit to the 

 action of fumes of sulphurous acid gaS;, which blanches it. In 

 large establishments, the trays are put on a four-wheeled truck 

 holding about 20 trays, upon which they are run to the sulphur 

 chamber. This is a large square iron case made so that the 

 trays can be easily pushed into the grooves on both sides of it, and 

 there tightly, almost hermetically, fastened. Sulphur is burned 

 in a stove at the bottom of the chamber, the fumes being distri- 

 buted through the trays by the draughts beneath. The fruit is 

 exposed to the sulphurous fumes from 12 to 25 minutes, after 

 which the trays, which fit into the sulphur chamber as well as into 

 the evaporator, are taken out and put as quickly as possible into 

 the evaporator. The sulphur prevents the discolouration of the 

 fruit, improves its appearance, and does not affect its flavour. 



