INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

From the Joy of Cooking: Choose firm, sound, uniformly sun ripened
fruit. [Pears and bananas do not freeze well]. It is not essential to
use sugar but it is often preferable. To sugar fruit, place it in a
shallow tray. Just before you pack, sift the sugar over it til evenly
coated. Don't let the mixture stand or the sugar will draw the  fruits'
juices. When packing, allow some room for expansion on  freezing.
Table 1  No sugar is required for these fruits.  Apples and plums
should be immersed briefly in a solution of 3 Tbl  lemon juice or 1/4
tsp Ascorbic acid to 1 qt water and drained to  prevent browning.
Blueberries should be steam blanched 30 sec to a  min to keep skins
tender.  Apples                  Blueberries                    
Cranberries  Currants                Gooseberries                  
Loganberries  Melons Pineapple                       Plums Prunes
Rhubarb  Raspberries  Table II  Use 1 LB sugar for the following:  5 lb
apples*           5 lb blackberries                4 lb  blueberries* 3
lb sour cherries*    3 lb currants 4 lb dewberries 3 lb  gooseberries  
3 lb sliced peaches*             3 lb pineapple 3 lb  plums*          
4 lb rhubarb, diced              4 lb raspberries 4  lb  strawberries,
whole or crushed  *These fruits require a 1/2 tsp Ascorbic acid
crystals per 5 lb sugar  to prevent oxidizing and browning. [Ascorbic
acid is Vitamin C].  About Syrup  These sirups may be made in advance
and chilled before combining with  the fruit. For light syrup use 1 3/4
c sugar to 1 pint water. You can  use up to 1/3 corn syrup for sugar.
Bring to a boil to ensure  complete dissolving and then chill. Allow at
least 1/3 c syrup to  each 1 1/2 c fruit making sure that it is
covered. Add lemon juice or  Ascorbic acid to the syrup for those
fruits that need them as per the  table above.  Freezing Berries
Fragile berries and cherries should be washed in ice water to firm
them. And any commercial or suspect fruit should be washed to clean
them. Drain well on paper towelling. After culling, hulling and
stemming they are ready for freezing with or without sugar. Blanch
blueberries to soften skins. If whole strawberries are packaged
without sugar, prick them with a fork to release the air. Unsweetened
raspberries may be frozen in a single layer on trays and packaged
after freezing to keep them whole and uncrushed. This way they will
weep less if thawed and used whole as garnishes.  Freezing Large Fruits
Sort them carefully, remove pits, cores and stems and pare where
necessary. Treat fruits that tend to discolor, such as apple, peaches
and apricots with the following: lemon juice or Ascorbic acid as  above
or use a syrup with added ascorbic acid as above. If these  fruits are
packed in combination with citrus fruits this step may be  skipped.
Pears do not freeze well.  Freezing Purees  Some fruits, such as plums,
prunes, avocados, papayas, mangoes,  persimmons and melons keep better
as uncooked purees. Bananas should  not be frozen. Either freeze
unsweetened or with 1 c sugar per 1 lb  fruit.  Freezing Juices  Apple,
raspberry, plum, cherry and grape juice freeze well as do  ciders. For
each gallon add 1/2 tsp Ascorbic acid or 2 tsp lemon  juice. Cherries,
plums and grapes have better flavor if cooked first  as there is flavor
to extract from the skins. Raspberries are best  frozen whole with
sugar and the juice extracted after they are  thawed.Fruit fir jelly
may be frozen unsugared and the juice  extracted later.  Extracted from
The Joy of Cooking  Posted to MM-Recipes Digest  by "Rfm"
<Robert-Miles@usa.net> on Aug  09, 98

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