Home canning, drying and preserving

Another short chapter, this is one that I would love to try making all the recipes from — they include ginger beer, elderberry wine and pineapple syrup.

According to Mrs Andrea, the purpose of a syrup is to make sure of the fruit that is not in a perfect condition. This way, no fruit is wasted — one can even use the parings and the cores of a pineapple for a syrup.

The instruction for several recipes in this chapter are vague — perhaps assuming the maker of the elderberry wine will know how long it needs to ferment for. It also seems to need to take up a lot of space — a “barrel or a keg” — which would certainly provide difficulties for individuals living in a smaller residence in a city, for example.

It is interesting to note the vast difference here in timings — sometimes the instructions require an exact 30 seconds between each addition of fruit or sugar, but sometimes Mrs Andrea suggests leaving it “for three or four days,” for example. Sometimes the exact quantities of everything must be perfect, to the gram, but sometimes sugar can be added or left out, as per the chef’s taste.

It seems interesting how many of these recipes take the form more of an old family tradition, that one would have learnt from generations before them. Mrs Andrea’s scholarly training goes against this tradition, yet she is communicating in a personal manner, using anecdotes and stories to make her book not only a source of instruction, but an entertaining read.