Where the spices are put in a sack, the sack is usually tied to the coil, if this type of cooking tank is being used, and where a jacketed kettle is used, there being no place to tie the sack, it is usually just thrown on top of the boiling tomato juice and allowed to float around near the surface during the boiling. One concern uses a long pole which is suspended from overhead and reaches to within a foot of the bottom of the jacketed kettle. The sack is tied to this pole, and it is thus held down during the boiling. As to whether any flavor is actually lost by allowing the spice bag to float near the surface is a question. This could easily be determined by an analysis of the spice residue. Use of Spices Direct and When to Add Them As far as I know, whole spices are always used when the spices are placed in a sack, and when they are thrown into the catsup direct, ground spice is used. It is claimed by some that the latter method gives just as good results as the former, and that no advantage is to be gained by the use of sacks. As to whether or not this is true I cannot say, as I have never used ground spices in catsup with the exception of pepper, ginger and paprika. The reason for using sacks, of course, is to allow the flavor of the spice to be extracted without having the spices come in direct contact with the catsup. If you will macerate some ground allspice or cloves in dilute acetic acid for a while, you will notice the black substance which is extracted, and it is surely reasonable to suppose that at least some of this will be extracted in catsup when the ground spices are thrown in direct. As for the cassia, there probably would be no objection to the use of the spice direct. The flavor of mace is lost by continued boiling, and the use of it in a sack which stays in the boiling liquid for thirty minutes or longer is a waste of the mace. If mace is boiled long in direct contact with the catsup it imparts a very bitter taste. The proper way to add mace is to throw it in direct in the broken form about three minutes before the batch is done. Ginger should be added at the same time as mace, as its volatile oil passes off very rapidly, and if cooked long it will practically all be lost by volatilization. As to the pepper and paprika, they are added direct in the ground form at the beginning of the cooking. Mustard is also said to be used in catsup, but it apparently isn’t used extensively. Use of Spices in Two Batches