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Post by glenn10 on Sept 2, 2014 21:17:22 GMT -5
I was wondering if anyone else checks the sugar content of various fruits they grow. I checked the brix on this particular mutt as the first fruit from the vine picked on august 28th really caught my attention(the small 12 brix). I must say it had to be the sweetest although small melon I have eaten in a few years. I fed a few slices to the kids then put the other half in the fridge. Yesterday I picked the second fruit from the vine(only 2 fruit on this particular vine) and tasted it.....It was incredibly sweet but not as sweet as the first one??? I measured the brix and it measured out at 13.5??? So out came the saved half of the first one from the fridge and ate a slice, yep it still tasted sweeter. I am now questioning my taste buds very hard today as I just don't get it. <a href="http://s1092.photobucket.com/user/glennbass/media/20140902_094442.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/i412/glennbass/20140902_094442.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 20140902_094442.jpg"/></a>
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Sept 2, 2014 22:28:42 GMT -5
glenn10: Nice melons. I have found taste to be incredibly subjective. Refractometers measure 'total dissolved solids', which might be sugar and might be something else. There may be some 'bitters' in the fruit that affect the perception of sweetness. The sweetest tasting cucumbers and watermelons in my garden are low brix, but are missing bitterness so they taste sweeter than high brix fruits. The odors a fruit gives off also affect how taste is perceived. To my taste, some non-sugar chemicals in the fruit such as carotenes enhance the flavor.
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Post by rowan on Sept 2, 2014 23:26:29 GMT -5
Joseph is spot on.
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Post by copse on Sept 3, 2014 0:04:39 GMT -5
I was wondering about this myself. I steamed a pumpkin I grew last year, no idea what it is, and forgot about it. Came back to find about half a centimeter of this honey like substance at the bottom of the pan. It was golden syrup like in texture, and very sweet. Would have gone nicely on ice cream. Wasn't even a whole pumpkin, just what fit in there.
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Post by blueadzuki on Sept 3, 2014 14:38:02 GMT -5
On the flip side, the last time I grew watermelons they were white fleshed ones (already usually a formula for low sweetness; despite some of their names, white fleshed WM's are often naturally on the low end of the brix spectrum. Sure enough when I finally harvested one (either a CS white flesh or a White Wonder, both were in the patch.) and sliced it, it didn't really taste of much of anything except water. So that it would not go to waste (and because I was thirsty) I then proceeded to squeeze the juice out of the rest to drink it (I thought even if I won't get the sugar, I can still then reap whatever vitamins are in the thing. On when I drank the ice, IT tasted sweet, as sweet as any watermelon I have ever had. So I have to assume that, in the case of this fruit the sugar was locked up, diffused or otherwise blocked from my taste buds by the mass of the flesh itself.
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Post by glenn10 on Sept 3, 2014 21:18:24 GMT -5
Yes taste can be quite deceptive at times. I brixed my grapes last year, I grow close to 20 different varieties and the difference in brix vs flavor between each variety was quite interesting which was easy to realize due to the different levels of acids/tannins/sugars etc of each variety. What I find odd is how the flavor varies so much from these melons being on the same plant and only a few days apart to ripen. I think my family has consumed about 10 melons so far previous to these and they all seem to have the same flavour profile and the ones I did check the brix on were all close to 10brix. copse, I am going to try the pumpkin syrup this fall! I love new ways to make tasty treats. Hopefully I can replicate your eureka accident:) Off topic do any of you have ways to preserve melons freezing,canning,syrup etc? Our fridge is absolutely full with still tonnes out in the field and friends are all happy with the over flow. Year after year we try and eat them all but most end up getting turned into chicken eggs. I have an industrial vac pac machine at work and usually blanch 40 or so pounds of beans every year and taste just like the day they were picked. Tried carrots....no dice So I am a little leery to put the effort into freezing lopes without a little guidance first. Glenn
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Post by steev on Sept 3, 2014 21:55:22 GMT -5
If you have a dehydrator, you can peel, slice (~1/4" thick), and dry them. Dried melon is very hygroscopic, so you must seal it for storage, lest it get wet enough to spoil, or at least be unappetizing. Properly kept, dried melon is a treat; in Middle Asia, the melon's homeland, there are varieties grown for drying.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Sept 3, 2014 22:28:00 GMT -5
Muskmelon wine is a delight. The flavor profile catches the uninitiated off guard, but once you realize that it's not grape wine then the flavor is glorious. I love dehydrated muskmelon slices. Mmmm. Mmmm. Mmmm.
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Post by 12540dumont on Sept 4, 2014 15:50:16 GMT -5
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Post by glenn10 on Sept 4, 2014 20:31:22 GMT -5
I just got off the phone with a very good friend of mine and scored his old dehydrator! So now I can made some melon chips:)Now the next question, Joseph are you willing to share this recipe for the melon wine? I am more of a beer person myself but my wife and in-laws are all a bunch wine-oes so I am sure the booze produced will find it's way into the plumbing with their help. 12540dumont, I have never thought of brixing tomatoes. Guess the refractometer is coming out again tomorrow When you brix tomatoes do you simply cut and take some juice or do you mash and mix it up first then take a sample? I typically mash and mix to get a better overall average. Am I right by doing so or is there an industry standard? Glenn
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Sept 4, 2014 23:17:36 GMT -5
I don't use recipes for making wine... It's more like general guidelines. For cantaloupe the guidelines would go like this: - Peel and de-seed fruits.
- Crush or puree and put into a fermentation bucket. (Do not fill more than 2/3 full).
- Pitch quick-acting bread yeast and add to bucket. Pitching is done by adding a tablespoon of yeast and a tablespoon of sugar to 1/2 cup water at body temperature, and letting sit for 1/2 hour or so. Foams like crazy so use a container that is way bigger than necessary.
- Close bucket and attach bubbler.
- Set in medium warm place like the kitchen counter. If it's in the sink and it overflows, cleanup is much easier.
- Watch for 3-5 days until bubbling slows. The second day admire how fast the bubbles are frothing.
- Rack. (I use a piece of 5/8" Tygon tubing to siphon off the juice leaving behind the pulp.)
- Press if desired. (I put the must/pulp in a dish towel and squeeze what comes out readily.)
- Transfer liquid to a glass carboy with bubbler.
- Add sugar for a higher alcohol content. If the melons are 13 brix that makes about a 6% wine which is too weak to store well. For 1 gallon it takes 2.5 ounces of sugar (by weight) to raise the alcohol content by 1%. So to get the cantaloupe wine to 10% requires the addition of 10 ounces of sugar. That's a concentration that's expected to store well. The addition of up to 35 ounces of sugar per gallon approaches the point at which the yeast is completely killed by alcohol poisoning (around 40 proof). High proof batches resemble brandy more than wine. I dissolve the sugar in hot water before adding.
- Watch the batch for 3-7 days until bubbling slows.
- Rack.
- Let sit about 2 months. This allows secondary fermentations and makes a smother finished product.
- Rack.
- If making a sweet wine, stabilize with 1/2 teaspoon per gallon potassium sorbate dissolved in 1/4 cup hot water. Dry wines and wines being turned into vinegar do not need stabilization.
- Check in about 1 week.
- If no more sediment formed it is ready for sweetening or bottling. If sediment formed rack and check later.
- To sweeten, add 1 can (12 ounces I think) of frozen white grape juice per gallon of wine. Leave bubbler in place and make sure that fermentation does not restart. If it does Rack and add more stabilizer. Some frozen grape juice already has potassium sorbate added, so that's an extra measure of stabilization.
- Rack and seal into green Bordeaux bottles with synthetic corks. Synthetic corks don't dehydrate.
- Glue a nice label on the bottle.
- For kudos add a heat-shrink seal.
- For that extra special dinner party be sure to turn a portion of the non-stabilized wine into vinegar. Then the following year, you can serve cantaloupe vinegar with the salad, cantaloupe fruit for desert, and cantaloupe wine as an after-dinner wine. The prestige from having all three available at the same time is enormous. That's worth throwing a party all by itself.
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Post by 12540dumont on Sept 5, 2014 15:31:07 GMT -5
Joseph, you're killing me. The very next time I drive to Minnesota, I'm coming to dinner at your house. Glen, when I brix tomatoes, I slice off the bottom of the tomatoes, squeeze out 2 drops on the refractometer, and then using the back of a spoon scoop out the seeds into cups to ferment. This way I'm doing the seed saving, paperwork, photos all at the same time. (I'm a lazy farmer).
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Post by glenn10 on Sept 8, 2014 20:21:41 GMT -5
Joseph you are the man! Thank you for such a detailed breakdown of the procedure. I really appreciate you taking the time to type that all out, it would have taken a person like me all day two finger typing It has been copied and placed in our recipe folder for future reference. I would have liked to try doing some this year but we can not seem to find the time to do anything lately, darn in laws. Seems we are helping someone move every other weekend:P .I agree with 12540dumont, you need to keep a few of your secrets on the downlow or you will quickly find a heard of people knocking down your door at supper time! Glenn
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