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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] why not double recipes?

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  • From: "Stephen Sadler" <Docshiva@Docshiva.org>
  • To: "'North American Fruit Explorers'" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] why not double recipes?
  • Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2008 12:12:17 -0700

You almost answer your "why's that?" with your next words: "unless there's a
health risk." Although recipes can be made safe to double with the right -
commercial - equipment, home cooks measurements of are often inaccurate.
Four teaspoons of lemon juice might be 3 7/8; three cups of chopped fruit
might be chopped more or less finely, and the weight would vary. Pressure
in pressure canners can be off, or atmospheric pressure not exactly
compensated for. Timers can be off by a few seconds. These small
inaccuracies that won't affect a single batch become cumulative, and you
start to see more failures and cases of food poisoning as batches get
doubled, and more if tripled. Home canners also don't necessarily check the
strength of their pectin or the pH of their finished products, or the pH and
brix of their fruit.

Another problem is that someone might have good success doubling a safe
recipe of a high-acid sugar-sweetened preserve, but unwisely assume that
they will be safe doubling any recipe, not realizing that some have far less
tolerance for the accumulation of minor inaccuracies.

That doesn't mean there aren't savvy home preservers who are very conscious
of correct measuring and safe methods. But still, no master food preserver
would ever want to be responsible for a bad batch; and one of the major
causes of batches going bad is recipe doubling.

As far as your dad's pickles, there are certainly large-batch pickle (and
olive) recipes, and some small batch recipes can be safely doubled; if so,
the recipe should state that. You can certainly find individual cases where
people have successfully doubled recipes; but the odds of failed or
pathogenic batches increases. Not every doubled batch goes bad; most won't,
but some will, resulting in anything from a waste of money to the worst
possible outcomes.

~ Stephen

-----Original Message-----
From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Ginda Fisher
Sent: Saturday, August 30, 2008 5:28 AM
To: North American Fruit Explorers
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] (no subject)


On Aug 30, 2008, at 4:44 AM, Stephen Sadler wrote:
>
> I still can't recommend doubling a recipe. Master food preservers
> (I'm not
> one anymore) are instructed to just say no to that...

Why's that?

Unless there's a health risk, I'd say just double or triple your
recipe, and then fiddle around with the larger-batch recipe until you
get it to work right. If you're using chunks of fruit you'll have to
make the chunks about the same size each time, or weigh them, to be
able to reproduce your proportions properly, of course. I have a
kitchen scale, but find volume measures easier in most cases, so I'd
probably go with "same size chunks". YMMV.

I'm far from a master food preserver, and I'd use the freezer to
preserve anything except super-safe stuff. I consider full-sugar
jellies and pickles to be pretty safe, however. I'm not enough of a
pickle fan to make my own, but I don't worry about eating my dad's
pickles from a recipe he's multiplied by some huge factor (whatever
fits his cucumber harvest this year.)

The only jelly I've made myself is red currant. Red currants have a
lot of pectin, so my recipe is:

Make red currant juice: mash the fruit in a pot, adding a little
water if needed to keep the bottom wet. Cook gently until all the
berries are wrinkled and the skins look whitish. Run the mess
through a foley mill and a fine sieve (possibly with cheesecloth. If
you use cheesecloth, but sure to wet it before use, or it will suck
up lots of juice) to get a clear juice.

Turn juice into jelly: Follow the proportions of juice to sugar in
"The Joy of Cooking" (I think it recommends equal volumes of juice
and sugar, but I'd check that) and cook gently until it looks like
it's reached the right stage. Then pour into sterile glass bottles
and seal. Leave the bottle on the countertop until they are cool
enough to handle, and then store in the fridge.

The stuff lasts a few years in my fridge without molding, and tastes
terrific. It's both very sweet and very sour, so I'm pretty sure it
doesn't grow botulism or anything like that.

BUT, each batch of currants has a different amount of pectin. The
pectin quantity is very dependent on the ripeness of the fruit.
(under-ripe fruit has more, and over-ripe fruit has less). I think
the pectin also breaks down after making juice, if I let the juice
sit in the fridge too long before I get around to jellying it. So
it's critical to know what it's supposed to look like when it's
cooked enough, because each batch behaves a little differently. I'd
expect the same sort of variation in any fruit product. The
sweetness, juiciness, and pectin content of each batch of fruit is
likely to vary, and you'll have to futz a little with the cooking
time or proportions to adapt.

Ginda Fisher
Eastern MA, zone 6




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