Putting Food By - Janet Greene [15]
Sweeteners
The relatively small amount of sugar (sucrose) or alternative natural sweetener used in canning or freezing fruit helps keep the color, texture, and flavor of the food, but it is optional.
The sugar in jams and jellies (Chapter 18) helps the gel to form, points up the flavor, and, in the large amount called for, acts as a preservative. As a preservative and for the gel, sugar is not optional. (The so-called sugarless or “diet” confections rely on gelatin, not pectin; are made with artificial non-nutritive sweeteners; and must be refrigerated or frozen.)
A sweetener is also an ingredient in some vinegar solutions used for vegetable pickles, where it enhances the flavor (Chapter 19).
In curing meats like ham, bacon, etc., a relatively small amount of sugar (perhaps brown) is combined with the salt; but the sweetener is added more to feed flavor-producing bacteria than to provide flavor on its own (Chapter 20).
In canning, freezing, and drying fruits, sweetening is in the form of a syrup of varying concentrations of sugar; in addition, dry sugar is used for some types of packs of fruit for freezing.
The “Natural” Choices
The usual granulated table sugar (sucrose) is white and refined from cane or beets. It is the sweetening implied in almost all the instructions that do not specify another type of sweetener. Other sweeteners may be substituted for it; where the volume ratio of the substitution will make a difference in the product this fact is noted below. One teaspoon (5 mL) granulated white sugar contains 18 calories.
Brown sugar, semi-refined and more moist than white—is called for in some directions for curing meats or cooking. It also may be used in place of white sugar where its color and flavor will not affect the looks and taste of the put-by food in a way you might dislike (it would impart its characteristic taste to canned or frozen fruit, for example). Substituting it for white sugar: measure for measure, but pack it down well; 1 teaspoon (5 mL) has 16 calories.
Corn syrup comes in light and dark forms; use light only in substituting for sugar—and then replace only up to 25 percent of the sugar with the corn syrup. Corn syrup increases the gloss and jewel-like color of jellies and jams, and helps canning syrups to cling to the fruits. One teaspoon (5 mL) has about 20 calories.
Fructose was once promoted as more “natural” and more healthful than white sugar. But, in fact, the process for extracting it is no more natural than the means of refining table sugar, and fructose is of limited value to diabetics and to those wanting to lose weight. Fructose occurs naturally in fruit, but most of what is used in supermarket products comes from corn. Industry uses high-fructose syrup (HFS), a substance far from easily available to the householder looking for a substitute for sucrose (sugar); fructose sold in tablet and liquid forms as a sweetening agent is not the concentrated sweetener HFS.
Granulated 100 percent fructose is sold in specialty food stores. Fructose has the same calories per teaspoon as white table sugar but, because on the average its ½ again as sweet (150 percent) as sugar, 10 calories’ worth will do the job of 15 calories of sucrose.
Fructose is notably sweeter on cold foods, and especially on fresh fruit; its sweetening power seems noticeably less on hot foods. In cooking with fructose it is a good idea to lower the temperatures slightly, because it tends to caramelize more quickly than sucrose.
Honey has nearly twice the sweetening power of white sugar. Because of a distinctive taste, use mild-flavored honey. You will get best results by replacing only part (no more than ½) of called-for sugar with honey.
Maple syrup is usually too expensive for routine use in the kitchen but should replace only about ¼ of the required sugar, because of its pronounced