=Peaches=
Wash peaches, rubbing well, drain, pare as thin as possible and drop
into cold water to keep them from turning dark. If the peaches are very
ripe, put a few at a time into a wire basket and plunge into boiling
water. Hold them there a moment, then quickly turn them into cold
water; after which the skins will slip off easily.
This is a quicker method and does not waste the peaches, but I have
thought they were more apt to turn dark.
For each rounded quart of peaches, make a syrup of ⅓-½ cup of sugar
and 1-1½ cup of water, the water in which the peaches were standing.
Bring the syrup to the boiling point, drop the peaches in (if in halves
the cut side down), boil until thoroughly heated through, or until
tender; drop the peaches into the jars, pour boiling syrup over, seal,
following “Suggestions” carefully.
=Pears=
1 rounded qt. (8 or 9) pears in halves
⅓-½ cup sugar
1 tablespn. lemon juice
1-1½ cup water
Finish the same as peaches.
The lemon juice gives character to the pears.
I once had some pears that were so flavorless it seemed hardly worth
while to can them, but I tied ground anise seed in small pieces of
cheese cloth and cooked with them, besides adding lemon juice, and
they were excellent. Small pears and those with thin skins may be
canned without paring. They are richer but the skins sometimes cause
flatulence.
Do not can pears while they are hard.
=Plums=
1 qt. plums
¼-⅓ cup sugar
¼-½ cup water
It is a good plan to prick the plums on all sides with a fork before
cooking.
=Quinces and Sweet Apples=
6 qts. quinces in eighths
6 qts. sweet apples in quarters
5 qts. water
4-6 cups sugar
Cook quinces in water until tender, remove with skimmer; cook apples
in same water, remove apples, measure water, adding more if necessary;
dissolve sugar in water, heat to boiling, add fruit, simmer a few
minutes and put into jars.
Quinces are much improved by combining with sweet apples. When the
apples are cooked with them, the quinces become more tender.
Quinces and citron and quinces and pears may also be combined.
=Cranberries and Sweet Apples=
1 qt. cranberries
1½ qt. sweet apples in quarters
⅔ qt. cold water
¾-1 cup sugar
Cook sugar, water and cranberries together, until the cranberries begin
to crack; add the apples and cook all slowly until the apples are soft.
Put into jars and seal.
=To Can Strawberries=
Also red raspberries and all delicate berries.
For each 2 qts. of hulled berries (just enough to fill one quart jar),
use 1 cup of granulated sugar. Put a layer of berries into an earthen
or granite ware dish, sprinkle with sugar, cover with another layer of
berries and so on. (Strawberries are so juicy they will not bear any
water). Let berries and sugar stand together in the ice box or cellar
for several hours. They may be prepared late in the afternoon and put
into the jars the first thing the next morning.
When ready to can the fruit, drain off the juice, heat it to boiling,
turn the berries carefully into it and shake and turn the dish once
in a while to keep the fruit heating evenly. When just boiling all
through, dip carefully into cans with a handled cup. Put the covers
on quickly, no matter how many bubbles of air there are nor how much
froth there is in the jars, and screw down tight with a can opener.
After pressing the edge of the covers down if necessary, lay the jars
on the side (instead of inverting, for strawberries) and turn over
occasionally while cooling.
When perfectly cold, set jars upright and you will find the berries
evenly distributed through the jars and they will never rise to the
top.
Allowing the berries to stand in sugar and afterwards putting them into
boiling syrup hardens them so that they keep their shape. It is better
to heat just enough at once to fill each jar. You can have several
dishes (milk crocks, granite, porcelain and aluminum kettles) on the
stove at once at different stages of heating so that you can fill one
jar after another.
This was my auntie’s method and I have never seen it excelled.
=Pineapple=
¼-⅓ cup sugar
½-1 tablespn. lemon juice
¾ cup water
1 pt. pineapple
Prepare pineapple as for fresh pineapple, put into stone jars or
earthen vessels with layers of sugar; stand in ice box a few hours
(not long enough to ferment), drain off the juice, add lemon juice and
water, heat to boiling, add fruit. Let all just boil up, fill jars,
seal as other fruits. The delicate flavor of pineapple is lost by long
cooking.
Grated pineapple canned with ½ cup of sugar to the quart is suitable
for ices and other uses.
=Rhubarb--cooked=
Put stewed rhubarb into jars as soon as it boils up well.
=Rhubarb Without Cooking--for pies=
A reliable method which gives the natural flavor.
Wash rhubarb and cut into inch pieces without peeling, pour boiling
water over, drain at once, cool, pack in cans and fill with boiled,
strained, ice-cold water. Seal cans, invert in cold place and cover
from the light. Set upright after a few hours. To use, drain, let stand
in fresh cold water ½ hour and drain again.
Cranberries may be canned in the same way.
=Watermelon Rind or Citron=
Pare off the thin green rind, cut into pieces 1 in. square, or into
strips, stand in cold water for two or three hours, changing the water
occasionally; drain thoroughly, make syrup of 1 pt. water to 1 or 1½
pt. sugar, according to the richness desired. (3 or 4 tablespns. of
lemon juice may be used with the larger quantity of sugar). When syrup
is boiling, add rind, simmer until pieces can be pierced easily with a
broom straw, or until they are clear, put into jars and seal.
One part raisins to five or six of the rind gives a nice flavor. Or,
orange flowers, rose leaves or rose water may be used, but the fruit is
nice without any flavoring.
Green melons which did not have time to ripen before the frost, are
excellent prepared in this way.
The rind may be steamed before putting it into the syrup, and less
water used for the syrup.
=Concord Grapes=
2 qts. grapes
¾ cup sugar
½ cup water
Pulp the grapes, run skins through the food cutter and cook for 20 m.
in the water. Boil pulp until tender and rub through colander to remove
the seeds. Add pulp and sugar to skins, heat to boiling and put into
jars. The juice may be strained from the pulp and used to cook the
skins in.
=Barberries=
1 qt. berries
2 cups sugar
½-1 cup water
Very nice for garnishing fruit salads, desserts or cakes.
=Tomatoes=
Select only perfectly fresh, well ripened tomatoes, wash and drop into
kettle of boiling water, remove with skimmer, drop into cold water,
peel, leave whole or slice. Boil well and put into jars the same as
other fruit. Long boiling frees the acid and takes away the fresh,
delicate flavor. When tomatoes are very watery, drain off some of the
liquid and can it separately for use in soups and broths.
=Tomatoes for Soups and Sauces=
Wash and slice tomatoes without peeling. Heat to boiling, rub through
fine colander or sieve to remove skins and seeds. Reheat and put into
jars.
=Whole Tomatoes=
Pack peeled or unpeeled tomatoes in wide-mouthed jars. Cook a few nice
ripe tomatoes, strain and pour the liquid, cold, over tomatoes in jars,
seal, set jars in cold water as in canning vegetables, bring slowly to
boiling point and boil ½ hour. Remove from water, tighten covers and
invert jars as usual.