Juice

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In English, the word "Juice" is largely reserved for the liquid extracted from vegetables or fruit. The US Food and Drug Administration, for instance, defines it as "aqueous liquid expressed or extracted from one or more fruits or vegetables."

In French and Italian, Juice can also be the "Juices" from something from the animal kingdom. The French word "jus" and the Italian word "succo" for instance, can be used to mean the Juices (unthickened) from a piece of meat.

When fruit Juice is made commercially, they really do try to pick the best fruit for it. Damaged fruit could have mould or bacteria that would spoil the whole batch of Juice, and unripe fruit would be bitter and not yield as much Juice.

Thick skinned fruits are usually halved first, others such as apples are ground, others are crushed (grapes and berries.) Fruit is often gently heated first before pressing so that even more Juice will flow. Mechanical presses are used to press the Juice out. A valuable by-product of pressing citrus fruit is the oil from the peel.

In Canada, New Zealand and the UK, anything labelled "Pure Fruit Juice" must be just that -- 100% Juice. In Australia, to be called "pure", it needs to have only 90% fruit Juice in it. In Canada, in order to use the word Juice in the name of the product, as in "Fruit Juice Drink", the Juice content must be 25% or greater. That's not to say that fruit drinks in Canada can't contain less -- in Canada, there is no legal minimum, as there is in other countries -- they just can't use Juice in their name.

In America and Canada, unpasteurized Juices must be labelled as such.

Juices made of mixed Juices, as long as everything in the mixture is Juice, can still be called a pure Juice.


Nutrition
Pure Fruit Juice isn't as virtuous a drink as people make it out to be: it contains a lot of sugar that, even though natural, can rot young teeth. Some authorities recommend diluting it with water or carbonated water to give it to kids. Yes, you yourself are lowering the Juice content and thus turning the Juice into a drink, but one that won't have all the added sugar of commercial fruit drinks. The added bonus is that this can stretch fruit Juice for Mums on a budget.

Equivalents
1 large can frozen Juice (the size that is about 340g / 355 ml or 12 oz by weight) holds 1 3/4 cups (14 oz / 415 ml sic) of water. Useful to know for when you have to add the standard 3 cans of water to the pitcher, but you've botched up the cardboard can in getting it open.

A 355ml / 12 oz by weight can of frozen Juice concentrate that calls for 3 cans of water will make approx 48 oz / 6 cups / 1.4 litres of Juice.

History
Juice wasn't really possible until 1869, when a dentist in New Jersey, a Dr Thomas Welch, developed a process to pasteurize bottles of Juice to stop the Juice from fermenting into alcohol. Before then, you couldn't just have Juice, unless you made it and drank it right away.

Canned and bottled Juices were all you could get until the 1940s and 1950s. In the 1940s, as part of the war effort, American researchers developed frozen concentrate. By the 1950s, the Juice market exploded, with orange Juice leading the way.

Also called:
Jus (French); Saft (German); Succo (Italian); Jugo, Zumo (Spanish); Suco (Portuguese); Succus (Roman) Top...