The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1950-08-24
FREEZING FRUITS

Handle gently and quickly for
best results. Choose your fruits
with utmost care. Fruit keeps it's
flavor and freezes best when 1t is
plucked at the height of its ma
turity. Make sure that all bruised
or spoiled pieces are discarded.
Delicately favored, fragile berries
should be examined particularly
carefully, both before and after
washing.
Take a little at a time. The
smaller the quantity OF the fruit
you handle at a time, the better.
Fruits tend to become soft and
soggy quickly, and certain ones
discolor through oxidation almost
as soon as the cut surface is ex-
posed to air.
First wash. Washing fruits
In cold water is of utmost impor-
lance in preparing them for freez-
ing. All wild fruit and low-grow-
ing fruit should be washed at
least twice. Ice water used for
washing will firm" the fruit.
After wa s h ng and draining,
spread fruit on a tray lined with
several thicknesses of absorbent
paper toweling, to remove excess
moisture.
Now ~. stem and peel. All
fruits that have stems or CAPS
must be washed before stem or
cap is removed. This is to prevent
the fruit from abs orbing the wash
ing water. Always lift stems from
ripe raspberries, dewberries and
gooseberries-never squeeze them
Off. Use knife to stem straw
berries Handle apples. apricots,
peacne1 and pears with par, cular
care and SPEED to prevent C5-
celebration. This subject is discuss
= ed at length in the Following para
graphs.
SWork fast and handle gently.
fruits bruise easily and have to
be handled gently And becau e
some fruits 'turn" and discoiar
quickly, you have TO handle them
with syced, too Don't waste any
time. The quicker you can get
fruits prepared, packed. and seal
ed and into your Home Freezer
the better. That's another reason
for dealing only in small quaint
ties at time
To avoid discoloration
Again. we repeat, use only small
quantities of fruit at a time, and
handle them as quickly as you can
But If you can't handle in small
quantities and work fast, discolor-
alton can be minimized by either
OF these two methods: % Dip
fruit Immediately after peeling
into solution of three table
spoons of lemon juice to gallon
Of cold water or. (2) Dip fruit
Immediately after peeling into a
recommended ascorbic acid solu-
ton t1/4 teaspoon ascorbic acid
crystals to one Gun syrup or Ii
quid). Either of these methods
will temporarily halt the oxidation
process that ruins color, but it is
still advisable to use the utmost
speed in packaging. Special care
sh0uld be used in preparing fruits
ike peaches and apricots. as these
discolor more rapidly than other
types.
Now add sugar . One way to
sweeten fruit to queens taste
and protect II during storage, is
to fill about one-fourth of the con-
tainer with fruit. Then sprinkle in
about one-fourth of the sugar.
Shake the container gently to
distribute the sugar evenly. Avoid
violent agitation or hard pressure
on the outside of the container.
Now add another layer of fruit.
another layer of sugar and so on
until container is filled. A sood
rule to remember is: for very
sweet preserving use one part
sugar TO three parts fruit; for not
so sweet, a one-to-fiYe ratio is ad-
visa0le.
Syrup is also good sweet lirg
and protective agent for a.'its.
Fill container with fruit, de vim z
some space for eXpansion) cover
with syrup, seal and freeze.
WARMING: Be sure that syrup is
cold before using.