CANNING AND PRESERVING
To get the best results in canning and preserving fruits and vegetables
(disregarding, of course, the necessity of good recipes, for this is not
a cooking history in any sense of the word) you must use the best set of
utensils.
It has now been proven that the process of packing fruits and vegetables
into containers, and sterilizing them after packing, is a better method
than the old way of cooking in an open kettle, transferring hot to the
jar, and sealing without further sterilization. Therefore, you must know
what utensils to use for the process (that is, the final application of
heat to the sterilized product) as well as for the packing.
There are canners made for the express purpose of doing this work and
they must be chosen for the amount of work necessary to be done. The
small, hot-water canner is the least expensive for home use and is good
for fruits and tomatoes. These two are canned in this safely at the
boiling point, and are often better than products processed at higher
temperature in other canners. If you have not got a water-seal canner or
a cast-iron, steam-pressure canner, or a small, portable hot-water
canner (water bath canner), you can use a wash boiler or bucket or an
aluminum or enamel combination roaster-canner, or an enamel or aluminum
boiler, if you place the bottles of fruit during the processing on a
false bottom and put on a tight cover.
The false bottom, of course, is best made of strips of wood and keeps
the glass jars from contact with the metal container, which is
dangerously near the flame. This, of course, is to prevent breakage. You
can use wire netting and galvanized trays, which must be raised 1″ to 2″
above the vessel floor to permit circulation of water underneath the
jars.
A very simple steam-canner is on the market now, made of copper covered
with nickel.
THE PROCESSES OF CANNING
The processes of canning are well known--the cleansing of fruits and
containers, the scalding or blanching, cold dipping, packing,
processing, air releasing and sealing. For these processes the following
articles are used: Colander; steamer for blanching; preserving kettle
when preserving; ladle; measuring cup; funnel; canner or aluminum or
enamel roaster-canner; strainer; dipper; silver knife; shallow trays;
pans; vegetable brushes for cleaning; sieve; squares of cheese cloth
also for blanching; wire basket; teaspoon; spatula (a most convenient
pliable blade to use like a paddle to let air out of the jars before
sealing); scales; and saccharometer if accurate work is necessary in
preserving. Wooden spoons and saucepans are necessary if the product to
be packed is to be cooked. Also the indispensable handle with which to
lift the jar from the hot processing utensil.
In using the aluminum roaster and canner with rack, fill half the lower
pan with hot water. Place the rack in position, and set the jars on the
rack. Place the caps on the jars lightly--do not screw them down tight.
Place the cover on the canner, being sure that the ventilator is closed
tight in order to confine all the steam.
Only one burner is necessary in case a gas, gasoline or oil stove is
used. After the water begins to boil, the flame may be turned down
one-third to one-half--just keep the water boiling nicely for the proper
length of time as per schedule.
When the time necessary for sterilization has elapsed, remove the cover
from the canner, and the jars can be taken out without difficulty.
Then come the mechanical parers, hullers for strawberries, stones for
cherries, corers and slicers, all valuable when the products to be
preserved or canned are in sufficient quantity to warrant their
purchase. Of course, a good steel knife must always be in the kitchen,
and a thermometer makes work less haphazard, for the kitchen without a
thermometer is like a motor car without a speedometer.
PRESERVING AND CANNING JARS
Probably of all the pernickety parts of preserving and canning
operations, the jar question is the most jarring (pardon the pun, but it
truly must have had its genesis here, and one can’t refrain from putting
a joke back on its native heath!).
We will entirely disregard the tin container because it is rarely, if
ever, used in the home. In the use of glass jars the same attributes of
construction, efficiency, utility and economy must be considered. There
are numerous brands and variations of these brands on the market.
Sometimes, in a canning or preserving operation, strange to say, the
contents of five jars will turn out well, and the sixth will be a
failure. This is, of course, due to the human or inhuman equation. Here
are some of the types:
1. Glass jars with metal screw tops lined with porcelain, made more
air-tight by a rubber ring. These tops can be used again and again.
2. Glass jars with glass tops fastened by a wire clamp, plus the rubber
ring. The tops are usable again and again.
3. Glass jars with flat metal tops held on temporarily by a metal clamp
until firmly sealed and then taken off. These look neat and ship-shape,
but the top must be punctured before its removal and therefore new caps
must be bought each time.
4. Glass jars with flat metal cap over the rubber ring and a bracelet
ring with thread and overlapping top edge which, when screwed over,
holds the top securely. These tops can be used indefinitely.
5. Glass jar with hermetic seal with lacquered metal top; around the
inner edge of the top is a narrow lining of a composition which, when
heated, softens and sticks to glass, and while the adhering is going on
a wire clamp holds it together and is removed after it is sealed. It is
self-sealing but you are unable to remove cover if for any reason during
the processing it has to be removed.
The government has this to say about the types mentioned above:
“If the old-fashioned screw-top jar is used (No. 1), good caps are
essential for safety. After having been used the edge of this cap
becomes flared and the porcelain lining frequently is loosened from the
top. This lid then not only is difficult to sterilize but may fail to
give an air-tight seal. If such jars are on hand and must be used, it
will be better to use them for the canning of fruits, preserves, and
other products which are easily processed and to secure jars of the
lightning-seal type for vegetables which are more difficult to
preserve.”
In preserving it is always well to put a three-ply hot towel underneath
the jar when pouring hot material into the jar to insure against
breakage--_especially_ when the table has a glass or porcelain-like top.
SEALING TESTS
If, after twenty-four hours, the seal or hermetic jars can be lifted by
their lids without falling from grace or from anything else, the seal is
pretty sure to keep the contents in good shape.
Screw-top jars can be tested by inverting in order to discover leakage.
All jars should be tested and reprocessed if jars leak.
Sad to say, foods in the best seal containers are often ravaged by the
culinary Bolsheviki which are bacteria forming in the most airless jars.
Unless all the bacteria are killed in processing, the tight seal is no
indication of salvation.
To make safety surer, the laws of cleanliness must be observed to a
scrupulous degree. The table scoured and covered with oil cloth, to
prevent dirt; refuse cans near at hand to prevent any accumulations of
bacteria or decay; containers and tops boiled at least fifteen minutes
before using, and used as soon after as is possible, and then inverted
either in water or on an exquisitely clean surface until used. Rubber
rings for sealing jars must be cleaned immediately before using by
dropping, for one minute, into a boiling solution of soda and water (one
quart of water to one teaspoonful of soda) and removing quickly from
fire to prevent rubber deterioration. Buy only the very best rubber
rings on the market or else your crop may fail. New rings must be bought
for every canning and preserving process.
Preserving is the result when whole fruits are cooked in syrup until the
syrup is clear and transparent. The object is to have the fruit
thoroughly permeated with the syrup. Preserving then is the process of
introducing syrup into the fruit.
A United States Government authority says: “In order to prevent
shrinkage it is necessary to put fruit at first into this syrup and
increase its density slowly enough for diffusion to take place and for
the fruit to be permeated with the syrup. This is done by boiling the
fruit in syrup or by alternately cooking and allowing the product to
stand immersed in the syrup, the density of the syrup being increased by
evaporation or by substituting a heavier syrup for the lighter one after
each period of standing. If at any time the fruit shrivels or wrinkles
the syrup should be made less dense by the addition of water. If this
process be carried on gradually enough the fruit may be completely
saturated with sugar (as is the case with crystallized products) without
shrinking.”
DENSITY MEASURES
When there is much preserving to do, and absolute accuracy is a saver of
money and time, a measure is used for determining the density of the
liquids. This is called a saccharometer. It is inexpensive, about the
same price as a thermometer, and consists of a long glass spindle like a
thermometer with a scale on it, but, instead of mercury, the bulb is
full of shot. When put in a vessel of water it rests at the bottom of
the vessel and registers zero. As the density increases the spindle
rises until the solution is saturated with sugar at the temperature
indicated, the reading being one hundred. This, however, is the Balling
scale. The Brix scale is more accurate and is more expensive. When using
a saccharometer use a 250 cubic centimeter glass cylinder, or a brass
saccharometer cup for the liquid.
The preserving kettle and the rest of the list of tools can be used for
preserving. For cooling, enamel or aluminum trays are the best. Fruits
will discolor tin. When jars are full, as mentioned before, slip a
paddle, silver knife (silver doesn’t discolor fruit) or spatula through
the fruit next to the container when packed to remove air bubbles.
ALUMINUM UTENSILS
Aluminum is light and enduring and contrary to allegations, cooking
acids in aluminum utensils does no harm whatever. In fact, if any
chemical action should take place, it does in the aluminum, and not in
the food. Chemists use it to cook acids in sometimes which is a proof of
the hardness of it in cooking fruit acids.
If compounds were formed with aluminum, they are entirely harmless and
have no more effect than any of the organic salts. Salts solutions can
be cooked in aluminum, but don’t store a concentrated brine as pickling
mixtures in aluminum, or the aluminum may become pitted.
To clean aluminum never use a strong alkali. Steel wool is the best
cleanser on the market at present. If when a utensil is washed any
slight stains or discoloration on the inside are immediately removed
with some steel wool and a mild soap, it will be kept in a bright and
shiny condition all the time.
Oxalic acid is often recommended as one means of removing the
discoloration from aluminum, as it unites so readily with the iron or
mineral deposit which sometimes forms on the aluminum from the action of
hard water. This, however, we do not generally recommend as it is not a
safe plan to have it around.
ENAMEL WARE
Enamel ware has a steel basis coated with porcelain. Probably no cooking
utensil has so long and classic an inheritance, for enamel on metal, as
jewelry, comes to us from the ancients, but it is not until modern times
that this process has been used for cookery.
The porcelain or enamel is so spread, hardened and annealed or tempered
that it is about as elastic as the steel and therefore does not break or
crack under high temperatures. But the cheaper qualities are not
reliable; consequently buy the best. There is no chance of appendicitis
in using enamel ware for never has any intestinal disturbance been found
to have originated from chipping enamel (as has been said by enamel’s
enemies).
So have no fear about using good quality enamel or aluminum or any other
of the best quality utensils sold to you by reputable manufacturers. You
are not only safe but fortunate when you can afford the best variety of
the best species.
The enamel merchants say that their ware is decorative and therefore
lends charm to the kitchen because it can be bought in blue, green,
white, gray, maroon, etc., and we add, too, that aluminum is decorative
and it adds a silver-like touch to a well put-together kitchen.
Enamel is cleaned like a china plate, with plain water and good soap;
whereas burn adheres more tightly to an enamel dish than an aluminum
dish, it is easily removed and the upkeep simple and swift, adding much
comfort to the housewife.
In the purchase of any utensil, see that it is smooth, seamless,
crackless, air-bubbleless, and light in weight.
ELECTRIC CANNING AND PRESERVING
When it comes to canning and preserving, the electrically equipped
kitchen is splendidly prepared to handle this matter with the greatest
ease and facility. Where there is a large electric range, it is
unnecessary to have any additional canning machinery, for the
sterilizing of the jars can be done right in the oven of the range. The
jars may or may not be immersed in a water-bath, just as it suits the
cook, without the bath is certainly easier and quicker, for the jars,
when cold-packed in the usual way, are merely set on a rack in the oven.
In this case, however, care must be observed not to keep them there the
full length of time prescribed in the water-bath method, lest the rubber
rings be scorched and afterwards develop defects.
Failing a large electric range, the next best thing is the electric
fireless cooker. Into this, a few jars may be placed at a time, kept at
“high heat” long enough for the contents to reach the boiling point,
when the automatic time-clock attachment will then throw the cooker on
the “low” for the sterilization period. This method of canning is
particularly desirable for suburban households where the kitchen garden
is only of medium size; in that case the “crops” usually are produced in
just about the quantity to make this the normal way of canning. With
both of these electrical methods, it will be noticed that there is no
huge, cumbersome and heavy boiler to be handled, a great labor-saving
feature.
In the electric kitchen, jams and marmalades are made in open kettles on
top of the stove, or for that matter, can be cooked on the much smaller
table appliances. The even, dependable temperature furnished by electric
heat is appreciated in these long, slow-cooking processes, where with
other methods, there is danger of burning unless ceaseless watch is
maintained.
In some of the new stoves, you can set the containers right in the oven
(see Gas Ranges Chapter VII also Electric Ranges Chapter VI and Oil
Stoves Chapter VIII). This is a great saving of effort to the woman
without a maid, as in this way the canning and preserving processes can
be much simplified, if attention is given to cutting out extra utensils
and processes.
For a household where marmalade, jelly and fruit-juice making is carried
on on a large scale, an electric fruit-juice extractor adds greatly to
the rapidity with which the work can be done.