Home › Preserving and Canning Fruit and Vegetables › Preserving and Canning Fruit and Vegetables: Canned
Preserving and Canning Fruit and Vegetables: Canned
Place even dozens in each package, and be sure to make an accurate count. Have a printed billhead and promptly notify the consignee of the time of shipment by mailing the bill with a courteous note. a To Fix a Price on Canned Goods. -Keep account of all time taken in picking, preserving or packing the produce and figure out what it would cost you to hire the work done by ordinary day labor. Usually ten or fifteen cents an hour is a fair figure.
Add to this the cost of the produce and sugar actually consumed, jars and all accessories, including packing material, labor, etc. When you have thus arrived at the actual cost including labor, double this amount to allow yourself 100 per cent profit. If at first you are unable to sell your goods at this price or better, it is probably because you are inexperienced. Either you are not taking advantage of the work, or others are taking advantage of you in the price you are paying for labor or material.
But 100 per cent profit is the ideal you should have in view, and some persons making homemade canned goods realize two or three times as much on their investment.
Storing Preserves. -Canned vegetables, fruits and preserves should be stored in a cool, dark, dry place.
The cellar is not the best place unless it is dry and well ventilated. A storeroom partitioned off from the cellar and built of concrete is an ideal apartment for this purpose. In houses that are heated in winter, a dark, airy closet in the upper part of the house is a good place. But of course, they must not be placed where they will freeze in cold weather. If it is necessary to store them in an ordinary cellar to prevent freezing, vent freezing, a swinging shelf should be constructed for this purpose. The jars should be allowed to become stone cold before being stored away. They will keep much better if carefully wrapped in darkcolored paper folded and pasted top and bottom, and labeled on the outside so that it will not be necessary to disturb the wrappers until they are required for use. a UTENSILS AND MATERIALS Utensils for Canning. -The most useful utensil for canning in considerable quantities is an ordinary tin wash boiler, such as is used in the laundry, cut down to convenient size.
As this utensil will not ordinarily have a great deal of wear, a cheap tin wash boiler may be purchased, or CANNING FRUIT AND VEGETABLES an old wash boiler that has been discarded may, by means of patches and solder, be put into sufficiently good order to answer this purpose. Measure from the bottom of the wash boiler to a point four or five inches higher than the top of an ordinary quart fruit jar, mark a line all around at this point, and have a tinsmith cut it off on this line. Or you can cut it off yourself with a chisel and hammer by inserting the end of a block of wood and striking against this. But it is better to have this work done by a tinsmith, and have "A Utensil for the Ordinary Range." him turn over the sharp edge so that you will not cut yourself on it. Now have a gridiron of wooden slats or wires fitted into the bottom in the inside. This is to keep the jars off the bottom on the principle of the double boiler. The result is a utensil of the right size for use on an ordinary range or on two burners of a gas or alcohol stove, and of convenient depth for sterilizing jars as well as canning the produce.
Or use an ordinary wash boiler fitted with a suitable false bottom.
This has the same advantages, except that it is less convenient to reach into its steaming depths when removing the jars.
A large porcelain preserving kettle holding ten or twelve quarts, a porcelain skimmer and ladle and a longa b. "A Large Porcelain Kettle." handled stirring spoon of wood are also necessary. A pair of scales and suitable measuring cup should always be at hand in the kitchen. The oldfashioned Mason jar is still in use, but the so-called lightning jar is preferable. Have on hand a sufficient quantity of new rubber rings. Never attempt to use old rings, as rubber decays very rapidly, and the old ring is almost certain to admit the air into the jar, causing the contents to spoil before it is used. Old rings also harbor bacteria that cause fermentation. With clean jars and new rubber rings, the battle is already half over. Other useful devices in canning, preserving and jelly making are the sugar gauge, fruit pricker, ordinary wooden vegetable masher, wire sieve or colander and wire basket such as are shown in the accompanying illustrations. a b C (a) Wire sieve; (b) wire basket; (c) fruit pricker. a a To make a fruit pricker cut a piece one-half inch deep from broad cork, press through this dozen or more coarse darning needles and tack the cork on a piece of board. One stroke on this bed of needles punctures the fruit with a dozen holes. But be sure to use large, strong needles and take care that none of the points are broken off and remain in the fruit. Remove the cork from the board, and wash and dry thoroughly after using. A little olive or sweet oil on the needles will prevent rusting. The sirup gauge and glass cylinder are essential to uniform success in making jelly. These may be obtained from any druggist at a cost of about 75 cents. A cylinder with a lip as illustrated and holding a a b C (a) Glass cylinder; (b) sirup gauge; (c) wooden vegetable masher. (Maria Parloa.) Ma uttle over a gill is the best size. The sirup gauge is a glass tube with a weighted bulb so graduated as to register 0° to 50°. To use the sirup gauge, fill the glass cylinder to about two-thirds of its height with a sample of the liquid to be tested. Insert the gauge and the quantity of sugar present, if any, will be registered. In pure water the bulb will rest on the bottom. The more sirup is dissolved in the water the higher the gauge will rise. When testing hot liquids, the gauge and cylinder must be heated gradually to avoid breaking. The fruit juice or sirup either for canning, preserving or making jellies may thus be tested at any stage. The sirup may be made heavier by adding sugar or lighter by adding water as the case demands.
Alcohol Stove.-A proper stove is a very important consideration. Produce is ordinarily ready for canning in sultry weather, and the heat of a cook stove or range is so unbearable that the process rarely receives the quality of skill and the degree of attention that the best results demand. A tired and overheated housekeeper is in no mood to closely observe the delicate points that contribute to the perfection of a high grade product. Housekeepers fortunate enough to enjoy the use of gas will need no suggestion to use a gas range for canning fruit, and at a time when the oven burners are not lighted. But where there is no available supply of gas a twoburner stove consuming denatured alcohol is especially recommended.
This is self-contained and portable.
Thus the whole apparatus for canning fruit can be moved into a large, cool room, into an outhouse, or if desired in still, clear, or sultry weather, out of doors on the veranda, or in the shade of a tree on the lawn. At all events, an effort should be made to "keep cool" in both senses, if one is ambitious to obtain the best possible results.
Materials for Canning and Preserving. The materials used for canning and preserving should invariably be of the finest quality. Only the best grade of white granulated sugar should be used. And this should be clarified as described under candy making. Fresh, ripe fruit and vegetables of the best quality should be selected and carefully picked over. All bruised, specked, or wormeaten specimens should be discarded. Small fruits, as raspberries and strawberries, and all vegetables, should be canned if possible the morning they are picked.
Great care should be taken in hand- CANNING FRUIT AND VEGETABLES ling produce to avoid bruising it. A silver paring knife should be used for fruit as an iron or steel knife tends to darken it. The fruit when pared should be instantly dropped into a vessel of clear cold water, care being taken that it is not bruised in falling. This prevents the fruit from "rusting" or turning dark by exposure to the air. All hard portions should be removed as they resist the effects of heat. And all "specks" or decayed portions since they injure the flavor and color.
The best quality of canned fruit is obtained by heating fruit in the jars as hereafter described. This method avoids bruising the fruit by stirring, lifting, or pouring it from one vessel to another. Particular attention and care when preparing all canned goods will be amply repaid in the improved quality of the product. If fruit is pared, the work should be done thoroughly and no particles of skin allowed to remain. If the cores, pits, or stones are removed at all, the work should be done in a painstaking manner. Especially if the goods are offered for sale, a small fraction of additional labor at the start will add largely to the price and salability of the product. For similar reasons only the best quality of spices, brandy, or other condiments should be used. PROCESS OF CANNING AND PRE- SERVING Nature of the Process. -Canning or preserving is a process of killing, by means of heat, the germs that cause decay and preventing the contact of other germs by covering the produce with boiling sirup and sealing it hermetically so as to exclude the air. The reason that boiling is necessary, is that the germs of decay may be already present in the substance of the produce itself. Hence it must be boiled until the heat has penetrated every part and effectually destroyed the germs. And the reason that air must be excluded is that the microscopic germs that cause putrefaction float in the air in very large numbers. Hence if a bubble of air remains among the fruit, or if air is admitted through a crevice as fine as a needle point in the rubber ring or metal top of the jar, putrefaction will certainly result. Other substances such as clear water or fruit juices exclude the air as well as sugar sirup. Sugar is added partly because it makes the product more palatable and nutritious, and partly because the presence of sugar is unfavorable to bacterial growth. Hence the amount of sugar to be added to a given quantity of fruit may be varied at will. The old-time rule for "preserving" was pound for pound, but this is by no means necessarily an invariable principle. The present tendency is in favor of "canning." The poundfor-pound preserves are regarded by many as unnecessarily sweet and expensive. A much thinner sirup is commonly used in canning and, provided proper precautions are taken, preserves the fruit equally well. Or, if desired, fruits and fruit juices and in fact any kind of vegetable, may be canned without the addition of any sugar at all.
To sum up, the produce must be thoroughly boiled through and through. The jars must be filled to overflowing with boiling hot sirup or other liquid so that all bubbles of a b C (a) Spring-top jar; (b) position of spring during sterilizing; (c) position of spring after sterilizing. air will be excluded. Then they must be instantly sealed, else the contents will cool slightly and leave a space filled with bacteria-laden air between the top and the jar cover. The jar must be provided with a tight ring of new rubber or other substance that will absolutely exclude the air or the bacteria that it contains. Such substances as blotting paper and cotton batting are sometimes used for the reason that they have the property of screening or filtering the air so as to prevent bacteria from passing through.
Methods of Canning and Preserving Fruit.-There are two different ways of canning or preserving fruit, either of which will give satisfactory .results: (1) boiling the fruit in the jars or cans, or (2) boiling it in a preserving kettle. The old-time method of "preserving" consisted in boiling the fruit in a suitable preserving kettle, in sugar sirup, lifting it from the sirup when sufficiently boiled, packing it into jars or cans and pouring the boiling sirup over it. This method is still preferred by many.
The modern method of "canning" consists in packing the fruit in the cans or jars without sugar, or with sugar sprinkled between the different layers at the rate of about one tablespoonful to each pound of fruit, placing the jars on the stove in a suitable receptacle surrounded by water, bringing the whole to a boil and finally filling the cans with boiling sugar sirup and sealing them. Canning is somewhat slower unless a large receptacle is provided in which to place a considerable number of fruit jars while boiling. But the process is easier and is likely to give a more satisfactory result. All bubbles of air are driven out of the fruit while boiling. And the jar itself is uniformly heated, so that when boiling sirup is added to fill it to the brim, it does not shrink by cooling in the moment of time required to clap on the cover and seal. Then, too, the fruit is undisturbed, and its shape, color, and texture are not injured.
Preserving Day. - Many housekeepers prefer, when putting up fruits for home use, to prepare a jar or two each day, selecting the finest fruits as they ripen. Thus the labor is distributed over the season and associated with other cooking from day to day so as to be hardly realized. But it is of some advantage, when a considerable quantity of fruit is to be preserved, to get everything in readiness at one time and make a day of it.