and pectins Candying can be a tedious process because it takes time for sugar to diffuse from the syrup evenly into the fruit Typically the fruit is gently cooked to soften it and make its tissues more permeable, then soaked for several days at room temperature in a syrup that starts out at 15–20% sugar, and is made more concentrated each day until it reaches 70–74% Canning Canning was a cause for wonder when it was invented by Nicolas Appert around 1810: contemporaries said that it preserved fruits and vegetables almost as if fresh! True, it preserves them without the desiccated texture of drying, the salt and sourness of fermentation, or the sweetness of sugar preserves; but there’s no mistaking that canned foods have been cooked Canning is essentially the heating of food that has been isolated in hermetically sealed containers The heat deactivates plant enzymes and destroys harmful microbes, and the tight seal prevents recontamination by microbes in the environment The food can then be stored at room temperature without spoiling The arch villain of the canning process is the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, which thrives in low-acid, airless conditions — oxygen is toxic to it — and produces a deadly nerve toxin The botulism toxin is easily destroyed by boiling, but the dormant bacterial spores are very hardy and can survive prolonged boiling Unless they are killed by the extreme condition of higherthan-boiling temperatures (which require a pressure cooker), the spores will proliferate into active bacteria when the can cools down, and the toxin will accumulate One precautionary measure is to boil any canned produce after opening to destroy any toxin that may be there But all suspect cans, ...isolated in hermetically sealed containers The heat deactivates plant enzymes and destroys harmful microbes, and the tight seal prevents recontamination by microbes in the environment The food can then be stored at... destroyed by boiling, but the dormant bacterial spores are very hardy and can survive prolonged boiling Unless they are killed by the extreme condition of higherthan-boiling temperatures (which require a... room temperature without spoiling The arch villain of the canning process is the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, which thrives in low-acid, airless conditions — oxygen is toxic to it — and produces a deadly nerve toxin The botulism toxin is easily