104. After jars of canned food have been cooled and tested for leaks,
carefully wiped with a damp cloth, and then wrapped and labeled, they
are ready to be placed in storage. Such food should be stored in an
orderly manner on shelves that may be covered to keep off dust, or in a
large cupboard provided with doors that may be closed. The temperature
of the room in which the canned foods are kept is of no great
importance, but, in homes provided with cellars, the cellar is the
logical place in which to store them.
Canned foods, no matter how well the canning may have been done, undergo
gradual deterioration. Therefore, those kept for more than a year, will
not be so good as those used during the first year after canning. If
canned foods from a previous year are at hand when new cans are ready to
be stored, the old ones should be placed to the front of the shelves and
the new ones to the back, so that the old ones will be used up first.
105. Canned foods take the place of raw foods, and whether they should
be cooked or not depends on the kind. In the case of vegetables, most of
them may be made ready to serve simply by heating them, although they
may be used in the preparation of many dishes, as is evident from the
recipes throughout the lessons. In the case of fruits, some may be
served just as they come from the can; however, there are many ways of
using canned fruits in the making of desserts, as is pointed out in
_Fruit and Fruit Desserts_. In the case of meats and fish, the food, if
cooked before canning, may be prepared for serving simply by heating it;
whereas, if it is canned raw, some cookery method for meat will have to
be applied.
When foods are boiled, one reason for a change in taste is that oxygen
is driven off by the boiling. Therefore, to improve the taste of canned
foods that are to be served without any further preparation, it is
advisable, when a jar is opened, to pour the contents into an open dish
and thus expose it to the air.
In opening jars of canned fruit, care must be taken not to crack or nick
either the top of the jar or its cover. The cover of any kind of jar
will come off easily if a little air is admitted. Insert a knife blade
between the cover and jar rubber of a glass-covered jar, but do not use
a knife to loosen a metal top, as it may bend the edge in places. Hot
water poured over the jar will assist in opening it.