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Canned Fruit

Fruit keeps equally well put up either with or without sugar. Fruit-juice to be used for jelly, sherbet, pudding sauces, etc., should be put up without sugar. Fruit for table use should have enough sugar added to make it palatable. The sugar is often added in the form of syrup. To make the syrup, use one cup of water to two or three cups of sugar, according to the acidity of the fruit. Melt the sugar in the water (boiling water will act more quickly than cold water), wash down the sides of the saucepan with the tips of the fingers wet in cold water, then cover the pan and let boil three or four minutes. Sometimes the syrup is made of sugar and fruit-juice in the place of water, and sometimes honey replaces the sugar in whole or part.

Blueberries (No Sugar) Pick over, wash, and drain the blueberries, dispose them in sterilized jars, shaking down and adding as many berries as possible to each jar.

Adjust the rubber rings, set the jars on the racks, the covers beside them, put on the cover of the receptacle, and heat the water gradually to the boiling point. When the berries are hot throughout and have settled in the jars, use those in one jar to fill three or more, adjust the sterile covers but do not fasten them, let cook ten minutes, then tighten the jars and remove to a board. These berries are canned without sugar or water. If more convenient, berries may be cooked in a saucepan to finish filling the jars.

Blueberries (Sugar) Fill the jars with berries as before, make a syrup in the proportion of one cup of sugar to half a cup of water, then when the jars are filled with berries, set them in the cooker, pour in the syrup to fill, let cook about fifteen minutes, wipe the rim of the jars, adjust the rubber rings, first dipping them in boiling water, syrup to fill the jars to overflow, set the sterilized add covers in place, and tighten the jars. These berries are to be eaten as a sauce. The point in their favor is that they are ready to serve.

Quite as good results may be obtained if the berries are canned without sugar and reheated with sugar the day of serving.

Blueberries No. 3 Stew the berries in a saucepan, adding about a cup of water to four quarts of berries, - just enough to keep them from burning; add sugar, - a cup and a half to two quarts of berries, — if desired; when boiling throughout, turn into sterilized jars, filling them to overflow; adjust rubber rings (dipped in boiling water) and sterilized covers, and tighten the covers at once.

For use in pies, put up without sugar.