Syrup from White Beetroot

With sugar in short supply and rationing taking effect novel ways of creating your own sweeteners were published. The Times published this letter which gives full instruction of how to cook your own sweet syrup from white beetroot.

It all seems rather long winded and time consuming today but in the middle of the war any method of beating rationing was welcomed.


SYRUP IN PLACE OF SUGAR
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES

Sir, - Those who have had any difficulty in keeping down to the prescribed amount of sugar or in getting that amount and have some garden space beyond what they need for potatoes, may be glad to dispense with sugar altogether till the end of the war. This they can do by making in their kitchen a strong aqueous solution of sucrose or syrup from white beetroot. Such a syrup, rightly made, has scarcely any taste but the sweet taste and can be used not only for cooking but even where the sense of taste is daintier, with tea and coffee.

Here is a recipe for the right making on a convenient scale which any cook can follow and needing only the use of ordinary kitchen appliances. First, grow or, for immediate use, get your beetroot. Any of the well-known seedsmen will supply seeds of the best sugar variety. Cut off most of the green top and wash without breaking the outer skin. Boil for an hour, more or less, according to the size of the beet. Remove the rest of the top and the outer skin, which now comes off easily, with the fingers. Weigh out 1 lb. Scrape each beet in turn with vegetable grater. The heap thus formed must be handled lightly so that little strips may remain separate. Heat 2 ½ pints of water to boiling in a saucepan about 6ins across and drop the beet into it. Heat again and boil gently for half an hour. Keep the cove on guarding against frothing over. Filter the contents through a jelly-bag and squeezes them, collecting the syrup in a bowl. Repeat the operation; or take 2 lb of beet and 4 pints of water. The 5 pints of week syrup got thus will be acid and must be made alkaline. A thimble full of bicarbonate of potash dropped into the syrup effects this. Return the liquid to the saucepan and heat to boiling. At first there is frothing. When this is past boil strongly with the saucepan uncovered till half the water is boiled away. Take the temperature with a cook’s thermometer and let it rise to 217 deg Fahr. It is then to be poured while still hot into a wine bottle which has been heated with water or in the oven to a similar temperature. Cork well. The syrup is then sterilized and will keep. A dessert spoonful is equal to a lump of sugar.

Yours faithfully,

A. Vernon Harcourt.
St. Clare,
Ryde,
Isle of Wight.