Preservation Of Vegetables Canning Vegetables

1. Make a false bottom to fit inside an ordinary wash-boiler. This bottom may be a piece of heavy wire netting or a wooden grating.

2. Prepare the vegetables as for cooking and in convenient form for placing in the cans. Root vegetables should be brushed clean, peeled and cut into convenient slices or pieces. Green beans should have their strings removed and then be cut into short lengths. Peas should be shelled. Corn should be cut off the cob. Squash should be peeled. Peppers should be scalded and the skins and seeds removed, and the flesh cut up into small pieces. Asparagus should be blanched or parboiled by dipping into boiling water for about three minutes immediately before canning. Artichokes should have some of the outside bracts removed and the hard tip cut off with a sharp knife.

3. The prepared vegetables are packed tight into the jars or cans which are then completely filled with brine containing three ounces of salt to a gallon of water. Before using, this brine should be acidified with lemon juice or vinegar. For corn ten fluid ounces (about one and one-half teacups) of lemon juice should be used to a gallon of brine, for beans and peas seven fluid ounces (about one teacup), and for other vegetables five fluid ounces (about three-fourths of a teacup). If ordinary vinegar is used, about twice these quantities are necessary. The acidified brine should be poured hot onto the vegetables.

4. The filled cans and jars are then placed, with their covers in place but loose, on the false bottom of the boiler. Hot water is then poured into the boiler until it reaches to about three-fourths of the height of the jars. A second tier may be placed on a rack resting on the first tier.

5. The boiler is then covered and heated to boiling, for one hour for most vegetables. Pumpkins, beans and corn require two hours.

6. After this heating remove and seal quickly, while still boiling hot, by screwing down the tops of the jars or applying the wax to the cans.

This is a thoroughly safe and satisfactory way of preserving vegetables. With some vegetables the acid may be omitted, but in this case two or three repeated heatings are necessary and this lowers the quality of the food to some extent. Reheating is not practicable with wax-top cans.

Preservation Of Fruits

Sugar is scarce - so scarce in fact that it is no longer possible to buy the larger amount for canning, that was allowed earlier this year..

Fruits are so necessary to health that it would be a great mistake to go without them entirely, because of the lack of sugar. They should be canned without sugar rather than not be canned at all.

Meet this situation by canning fruits and fruit juices without sugar. This may be successfully done by the "cold pack method." They will keep as well, if not better. They may be made up in sauces, jellies or syrups, as they are needed.

Limit the amount of jellies and preserves you use.

In making these, substitute corn syrup for a part of the sugar. (See directions below).

Canning Fruit

1. Make a false bottom to fit inside an ordinary stove wash-boiler. This bottom may be a piece of heavy wire screen or a wooden grating.

2. Prepare the fruit by peeling, coring, and pitting as needed.

Cold-Pack Method

3. Pack the fruit as prepared directly into the jars or cans.

4. Complete the filling of the cans with hot water, sugar syrup, or grape syrup. Jars should be warmed first to avoid cracking.

The fruit will keep equally well whichever liquid is used. The addition or the amount of sugar is a matter of taste. It can be added later when the fruit is used. The usual sugar syrup for apricots, peaches, plums and berries is made by dissolving 3 1/2 pounds of sugar in a gallon of water. For apples, pears, quinces, prunes, and cherries 2 1/4 pounds of sugar to the gallon is sufficient. If neutral 65 grape syrup is used, from 5 1/2 to 3 1/2 pounds should be used per gallon of water.

5. Place the full cans or jars with loose covers on the false bottom in the wash boiler, adding water to about two-thirds their height. With cans boiling water is best; with jars it should be simply warm. A second tier may be placed on a wooden rack resting on top of the first tier.

6. Place the cover on the boiler and heat to boiling. The boiling should continue for twenty minutes for apricots, free-stone peaches, plums, berries, apples and cherries. For pears, cling-stone peaches, and unripe fruits, thirty minutes are necessary to cook the fruit.

7. The tops of the jars should be screwed down tight while still boiling hot and placed upside down or lying down on a table to cool. Wax-top cans should be removed quickly and sealed while boiling hot.

Hot-Pack Method

By this method, the fruit after preparation is cooked in an open pot with the water or syrup. When cooked sufficiently it is simply ladled while still boiling hot, into the cans or jars, which are then sealed immediately. Jars must be heated by placing in boiling water before being filled.

In this way a larger quantity of solid fruit can be packed into a jar or can. The liquid remaining in the cooking pot may be used to cook a second lot of fruit.