Fruit Canning Lab

Food Prep 101

Written by Elisha Larsen on September 11, 2002
Last updated June 19, 2007

Give a brief summary of your experiment(s), your personal observations noted while doing the experiment(s), and the results of the experiment(s). If your results were different than those that you expected, explain why this might have occurred.

I worked at lab station three where we canned peaches and experimented with making applesauce and coddling apples. The canning was particularly fun and very interesting. I had never heard of people canning their own food, however after doing it, I really want to teach others and try again. To can we followed the directions of boiling out utensils and preparing our jars by fitting as many peaches as we could. We then prepared the syrup, which consisted of water and sugar as the fluid that would surround our peaches and keep them. We had to be sure to let all of the air out, make sure the jars were properly sealed, and to make sure they were sealed at the correct high temperatures.

When we worked with the making of applesauce, we experimented by testing five different types of apples. We used: Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Fuji, Granny Smith, and Gala apples. We observed the flavor, texture and appearance of each. We also tested the different amounts of sugar used. I concluded that the Granny apples were the best for making applesauce as far as texture and could be really good in flavor if more sugar was added. I had not expected there to be much of a difference between the apples, but there was a range of different textures and tastes.

Our lab also experimented with coddling apples. We were to use the same five apples as we did for the applesauce. However, we only had time to experiment with three. The three we chose were: Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, and Gala. The Red and the Golden Delicious apples were very bitter in flavor but the Gala had a very good sweet flavor. Again I had not expected one to differ from the other, but they really did. They were all pretty mushy. The biggest difference was the flavor, and that had to do with the amount of sugar used.

Note any new techniques you learned or where you gained further skills and new concepts learned.

From this lab experience I was able to learn how to properly and safely can food. I was also able to experiment with the different apples and see the way they each reacted to the boiling and sugar. I had always wondered how applesauce was made and am so excited now that I know how to prepare it. I also learned that the granny smith apples are the best to prepare applesauce with because of the separation. However the taste was still quite tart, which is why adding sugar is important.

Discuss the science principles involved in these experiments and recipes.

During the experiment with the apples the scientific principles had to do with the ways the apples were cooked and the addition of sugar. Softening and breakage of fruit depends upon the cooking medium. When cooked with boiling water and sugar, the fruit will hold its shape. And by boiling without sugar the tissue disintegrates when the fruit is heated, the permeability of the cell wall is altered and allows movement of water and sugar. This is called the principle of diffusion.

So when cooking apples in order to make apple sauce you want to boil the apples first in order to allow the disintegration of the fruit for a mushy sauce – like substance. You would then add sugar afterwards for taste.

When cooking apples by coddling them, you want to make sure that you cook the apples with the sugar already in the water. This allows the texture and appearance to be more solid. This is due to the cell wall’s alteration of diffusion.

Identify personal and food safety principles observed.

I learned that it is best to use the correct tools when peeling apples for two reasons. The first is so that you may be sufficient in the task and the second in order to prevent unnecessary cuts. For instance, while pealing an apple, it is best to use a peering knife to skin and a corer to remove the core.

The most important thing I learned about food safety is to always wash your hands and when canning make sure to watch your temperatures. You also want to make sure that each jar is properly sealed or you may get extremely sick and could possibly die.

Discuss the group dynamics of your lab station, your personal and your station’s time management and organization.

This lab was again a very time consuming lab. Mainly because of all the different pots we had to use. There was not nearly enough time for us to even finish testing all five of the different apples for coddling, we had time to only do three. I feel we were very good at managing time but again I missed out on really testing the results because of dishes. However we all did our part and I felt we did a good job. We could have worked better together if there was a little more communication.

Future labs and new interest or ideas:

For future labs, I think it would be real neat to test different fruits. In order to understand the difference between the different types of fruit: such as berries, grapes, citrus fruit, etc… in order to get a better understanding on the different compounds. Such as: aromatic compounds and Phenolic compounds.

Vocabulary:

Antioxidant – Substance that retards oxidative rancidity in fats by becoming oxidative itself and stopping a chain reaction.

Blanch – To apply boiling water or to steam for a few minutes.

Osmosis – Movement of water through a semi permeable from an area of low concentration of solute to an area of higher concentration to equalize the osmotic pressure created by differences in concentration.

Pectin – Polysaccharide composed of galacturonic acid subunits, partially esterified with methyl alcohol, and capable of forming a gel.