Pastilles, Pectin, Sweets and Trump's Testy Tweets

Making better fruit pastilles, the importance of pectin, President Trumps mixed message tweets and plans for The Wall

Yesterday's orange pastille mix was too soft, so converted it to marmalade. It turned out I needed more pectin. I therefore set up a new mix with peaches, sugar, lemon juice and 30g pectin in solution (most of the bottle of liquid). This time it set much better on cooling. See what tomorrow brings.

But what is pectin? Pectin is found in the plant cell walls, helping give them stiffness. We probably eat about 1g or pectin in every 100g of vegetable and fruit in our diet. Although it is made up of chains of sugars, mainly D-galacturonic acid, it is more a type of dietary fibre than a nutrient for us humans. However, it does have health properties, aiding the passage of food though our guts, reducing sugar uptake and binding cholesterol. Because it can be used to make gels and give food a better texture, pectin is used in a variety of processed products - including jams and sweets.

Unripe apples and the peel of citrus fruits are particularly rich in pectin. and used for its commercial extraction. In contrast, soft fruits like strawberries are low in pectin. This is important in jam making as it is the pectin that makes jam set. Whilst commercial fruit pastilles are made using animal derived gelatin, they can also be made using plant based pectin, as I've been trying to do.

President Trump's tweets continue to sow confusion about US policy. Examples include his response to German Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit:
"Despite what you have heard from the FAKE NEWS, I had a GREAT meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel..."
immediately followed by:
"Nevertheless, Germany owes vast sums of money to NATO & the United States must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany!"
The latter statement appears to be a misunderstanding of the role of NATO, it is not a paid service provided by the US,
Worrying too, that whilst U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is trying to bring China on board in having an influence on North Korea, POTUS tweets:
"North Korea is behaving very badly. They have been "playing" the United States for years. China has done little to help".

However, the much proclaimed wall between the US and Mexico is in the pre-solicitation stage. The specifications have been set, for example the walls height at 9 m (30 feet) height and minimum requirements for aesthetics, at least on the US side. As part of the process, a selected list of contenders will  asked to build demonstration sections of the wall to illustrate their designs and proposals. Not sure if the Mexicans, designated payees, have any say in the selection process.