Remember the starting proportions – 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of water, 1 cup of lemon juice.

(This ratio makes a pretty sweet lemonade. Reduce the amount of sugar if you want your lemonade less sweet or if you are using Meyer lemons which are naturally sweeter than standard lemons.)

The secret to perfect lemonade is to start by making sugar syrup, also known as “simple syrup”. Dissolving the sugar in hot water effectively disperses the sugar in the lemonade, instead of having the sugar sink to the bottom.

Perfect Lemonade Recipe

Maple syrup

It was first collected and used by Native Americans/First Nations and was later adopted by European settlers.^[1]

Maple syrup production is centered in northeastern North America, and is commonly associated with Quebec in Canada and Vermont in the U.S. However, given the correct weather conditions, it can be made wherever maple trees grow. Usually, the maple species used are the sugar maple (Acer saccharum) and the black maple (Acer nigrum), because of a high sugar content in the sap of roughly two percent. A maple syrup production farm is called a “sugar bush” or “the sugarwoods”. Sap is often boiled in a “sugar house” (also known as a “sugar shack” or cabane à sucre), a building which is louvered at the top to vent the steam from the boiling sap.

Canada makes more than 80 percent of the world’s maple syrup, producing about 7 million US gallons in 2005. The vast majority of this comes from Quebec: the province is by far the world’s largest producer, with about 75 percent of the world production (6.515 million US gallons in 2005).[1] The provinces of Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island produce smaller amounts.

Vermont is the biggest U.S. producer, with 450,000 US gallons in 2007, followed by Maine with 225,000 US gallons and New York with 224,000 US gallons. Wisconsin, Ohio, New Hampshire, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Connecticut all produced marketable quantities of maple syrup of less than 100,000 US gallons each in 2007.^[2]

When looking for watermelon ripeness, the underside of the melon which touched the ground should be a yellowish color. Slap the side of the watermelon; if ripe, it will resonate with a hollow thump.

Watermelon is 92% water. Watermelon is an ideal health food because it doesn’t contain any fat or cholesterol, and is an excellent source of vitamins A, B6 & C.

Avoid kiwi fruits that are too hard. Store unripe kiwis at room temperature until skin indents slightly when touched.

The shell or skin of the kiwi fruit can be eaten or peeled before juicing but is a little bitter for some tastes.

Ounce for ounce, kiwifruit has more vitamin C than oranges, as much potassium as bananas, and four times as much fibre as celery.

The Kiwi fruit is also known as the Chinese gooseberry. The French call it souris végétales, ‘vegetable mice’.

Grapes can benefit our health in a number of ways, they are good sources of well known vitamins and minerals including vitamins A, B1, B2 and C as well as calcium, flouride, copper, iron and potassium. However some of the grapes nutritional content is not so well known. Grape seeds are a good source of antioxidants which can help against premature ageing of the body and can help neutralise free radicals. Grape seeds also contain compounds called oligomeric proanthocyanidins (OPC’s) which have a regenerative effect on cells by strengthening the blood vessel cell walls.

A substance called resveratrol is found in grape skins, it has been reported that resveratrol once inside the body is converted into a cancer fighting agent that can target and attack cancer cells(1).

When juicing grapes you should include the skins and the seeds of the grapes. You should however thoroughly rinse the grapes if they are not organic to remove any possible traces of herbicides or pesticides that are often sprayed on the crops.

Grapes contain high levels of natural sugars and so people with sugar sensitive conditions such as Diabetes or Candida should take care not to consume too much grape juice.

Pineapple juice contains the enzyme bromelain. Bromelain is a natural digestive enzyme that also has anti-inflammatory properties.

Bromelain is found in highest concentrations in the rind of the pineapple, only juice the rind if you know the pineapple has been grown organically.

Pineapples used to be used to prevent scurvy in sailors who were passing through the tropics as pineapple juice is a good source of vitamin C.

A native of the Americas, the pineapple was named pina by the Spanish because of the fruit’s likeness to a pine cone.

Cherry juice can be very thick and some people might find it prefereble to dilute it with apple juice or water.

Ongoing research at Michigan State University shows that cherries are a rich source of antioxidants that can help fight cancer and heart disease. In addition, cherries contain compounds that help relieve the pain of arthritis, gout and even headaches. The secret is in the pigments that give cherries their rich red hue. They belong to a class of natural dyes called anthocyanins, which have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

New studies being conducted at the University of Texas indicate that cherries also have significant levels of melatonin, a potent antioxidant that can reach and kill free radicals, which are toxins believed to cause or worsen many diseases.

The cherries ruby-red color and tangy taste won cherries a place on the tables of Roman conquerors, Greek citizens and Chinese noblemen.

Cherries can give relief from asthma as they dilate the bronchial tract.

Ice cream

Frozen custard, frozen yogurt, sorbet, gelato, and other similar products are sometimes informally called ice cream, but governments generally regulate the commercial use of these terms based on quantities of ingredients.^[3] American federal labeling standards require ice cream to contain a minimum of 10% milk fat (about 7 grams (g) of fat per 1/2 cup [120 mL] serving) and 20% total milk solids by weight.^[4]

Production

Before the development of modern refrigeration, ice cream was a luxury item reserved for special occasions. Making ice cream was quite laborious. Ice was cut from lakes and ponds during the winter and stored in large heaps, in holes in the ground, or in wood-frame ice houses, insulated by straw. Many farmers and plantation owners, including U.S. Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, cut and stored ice in the winter for use in the summer. Frederic Tudor of Boston turned ice harvesting and shipping into big business, cutting ice in New England and shipping it around the world.

Ice cream was made by hand in a large bowl placed inside a tub filled with ice and salt. This was called the pot-freezer method. French confectioners refined the pot-freezer method, making ice cream in a sorbtierre (a covered pail with a handle attached to the lid). In the pot-freezer method, the temperature of the ingredients is reduced by the mixture of crushed ice and salt. The salt water is cooled by the ice, and the action of the salt on the ice causes it to (partially) melt, absorbing latent heat and bringing the mixture below the freezing point of pure water. The immersed container can also make better thermal contact with the salty water and ice mixture than it could with ice alone.

The hand-cranked churn, which also uses ice and salt for cooling, replaced the pot-freezer method. The exact origin of the hand-cranked freezer is unknown, but the first U.S. patent for one was #3254 issued to Nancy Johnson on September 9, 1843. The hand-cranked churn produced smoother ice cream than the pot freezer and did it quicker. Many inventors patented improvements on Johnson’s design.

In Europe and early America, ice cream was made and sold by small businesses, mostly confectioners and caterers. Jacob Fussell of Baltimore, Maryland was the first to manufacture ice cream on a large scale. Fussell bought fresh dairy products from farmers in York County, Pennsylvania, and sold them in Baltimore. An unstable demand for his dairy products often left him with a surplus of cream, which he made into ice cream. He built his first ice cream factory in Seven Valleys, Pennsylvania, in 1851. Two years later, he moved his factory to Baltimore. Later, he opened factories in several other cities and taught the business to others, who operated their own plants. Mass production reduced the cost of ice cream and added to its popularity.

The development of industrial refrigeration by German engineer Carl von Linde during the 1870s eliminated the need to cut and store natural ice and when the continuous-process freezer was perfected in 1926, it allowed commercial mass production of ice cream and the birth of the modern ice cream industry.

The most common method for producing ice cream at home is to use an ice cream maker, in modern times generally an electrical device that churns the ice cream mixture while cooled inside a household freezer, or using a solution of pre-frozen salt and water, which gradually melts while the ice cream freezes. Some more expensive models have an inbuilt freezing element. A newer method of making home-made ice cream is to add liquid nitrogen to the mixture while stirring it using a spoon or spatula. Some ice cream recipes call for making a custard, folding in whipped cream, and immediately freezing the mixture.

Full-service restaurants, soda fountains, and diners usually prepare and mix the shake “by hand” from scoops of ice cream and milk in a blender or drink mixer using a stainless steel cup. Most fast food outlets do not make shakes by hand with ice cream, with a few exceptions such as the US chain Jack in the Box. Instead, they make shakes in automatic milkshake machines which freeze and serve a premade milkshake mixture consisting of milk, a sweetened flavoring agent, and a thickening agent. Some fast-food restaurants such as Dairy Queen serve milkshakes which are prepared by blending soft-serve ice cream (or ice milk) with sweetened, flavored syrups such as chocolate syrup and fruit-flavored syrup and milk.

Milkshake machines

Restaurants with the highest volume of traffic, such as McDonalds, often opt to use pre-made milkshake mixtures that are prepared in automatic milkshake machines. These machines are stainless steel cylinders with beaters that use refrigeration coils to freeze pre-made milkshake mixtures into a drinkable texture. The number of different flavors that a restaurants with automatic milkshake machines can serve is limited by the number of different tanks in their milkshake machines, and fast food restaurants usually offer fewer flavors of milkshakes.

The smallest automatic milkshake machines are counter-mounted appliances that can make a single milkshake flavor using a five liter stainless steel tank. Large restaurants wanting to offer multiple flavors can either use floor-mounted multi-flavor machines with multiple five liter stainless steel barrels or use carbon dioxide-based machines that mix the flavors during dispensing. Some fast-food restaurants use “thick milkshake” machines, which are single-flavor machines with a (12 liter) stainless steel tank.

Soft serve mixed with syrup

Some fast-food restaurants such as Dairy Queen serve milkshakes which are prepared by blending soft-serve ice cream (or ice milk) with sweetened, flavored syrups such as chocolate syrup and fruit-flavored syrup and milk. While these milkshakes are hand-blended, the use of soft-serve ice cream marks these beverages as fast-food products. Soft serve ice cream is a frozen dessert that is dispensed from a machine. It was invented by a chemical research team in Britain that discovered a method of doubling the amount of air in ice cream, allowing manufacturers to use a lesser quantity of ingredients, reducing costs.