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Preserving and Canning Fruit and Vegetables: Remove

Drain well. Now stir the sugar into the water over the fire until dissolved and boil five minutes, skimming well. Add the drained fruit and cook gently twenty minutes Put in sterilized jars. Remove the skins from the white varieties. a For quince preserve use 2 quarts of sugar to 1 quart of water and 4 quarts of fruit. Pare, quarter and core the quinces. Boil in clear water until tender, skim and drain. Now stir the sugar into the water until dissolved, bring slowly to boil, skim well and boil for twenty minutes. Pour one-half the sirup into another kettle. Put one-half the cooked and drained fruit into each kettle, simmer gently half an hour and put in sterilized jars. Preserve the water in which the fruit is boiled and add to it the parings, cores and gnarly fruit to make jelly. or Purées and Marmalades. These preserves are merely crushed fruit pulp cooked with sugar. Purées differ from marmalades in being cooked with a small quantity of water and not cooked so long. They retain more of the natural fruit flavor. This process is especially useful for preserving small seedy fruits for frozen desserts, cake and puddings. Pick over and remove leaves, stems and decayed portions, peach, plum and cherry pits. Rub through a purée sieve and add to each quart of strained fruit a pint of sugar. Pack in sterilized jars, put the covers on loosely and place on the rack in the boiler. Put enough cold water in the boiler to come half way up the sides of the jars. Bring slowly to a boil and boil thirty minutes from the time the water begins to bubble. Remove the jars from the boiler one by one, place in a pan of hot water, fill with hot sirup and seal.

For marmalade pick over berries with great care and rub through a fine sieve to remove the seeds. Remove all cherry, plum or peach pits. Wash, pare, core and quarter large fruit. Allow 1 pint of sugar to each quart of fruit. Rinse the preserving kettle with cold water leaving a slight coat of moisture on the sides and bottom. Put in a layer of . fruit, sprinkle with a layer of sugar and so continue until all the fruit and sugar are used. Heat slowly and stir very frequently so as to break up the fruit as much as possible.

Cook for about two hours and put in small sterilized jars.

Fruit Preserved in Grape Juice.- Any kind of fruit can be preserved by this method without the use of sugar, but it is particularly recommended for apples, pears and sweet plums. Boil 6 quarts of grape juice in an open preserving kettle down to 4 quarts. Have the fruit washed and pared and large fruit quartered and cored. Cover the prepared fruit with boiled grape juice, boil gently until tender and put in sterilized jars.

Boiled Cider. -Choose cider that is perfectly fresh and sweet. Fill an open preserving kettle not over two-thirds full and boil down onehalf, skimming frequently. Put in bottles or stone jugs and use to improve mince meat or make cider apple sauce. Cider Apple or Pear Sauce.-Use 5 quarts of boiled cider to 8 quarts of pared, quartered and cored fruit.

Cover the prepared fruit with boiled cider and cook for two or three hours, or until clear and tender.

Place the kettle on an iron tripod or ring to prevent burning. But if necessary to stir the sauce take care to break the fruit as little as possible.

JELLY MAKING All fruit when ripe or nearly so contains a substance called pectin which has properties somewhat similar to starch. All housekeepers know that starch when boiled in water cools in a jelly-like mass. A similar property in pectin causes fruit juices, when properly boiled, to jell. But if fruits become overripe, or if fruit juices ferment or are cooked too long, the pectin undergoes a change and loses this power. Experience has shown that a definite amount of sugar dissolved in the fruit juicenamely, 25 degrees as registered by the sirup gauge-is exactly right for combining with pectin to make jelly.

Any excess of sugar tends to form crystals and the presence of these tends to cause the whole mass to crystallize. Moreover, if the sirup boils so rapidly that some of it rises on the sides of the preserving kettle, such particles will form crystals and these, if stirred into the sirup, may crystallize the whole. Hence the three chief secrets of jelly making are: (1) The selection of fruit which is just ripe, or slightly underripe; (2) the use of the sirup gauge; and (3) slow and careful boiling with especial care not to boil too long. The sirup gauge should register 25 degrees for every kind of fruit without exception.

Housewives are often perplexed because one lot of jelly crystallizes or refuses to harden, whereas another prepared by the same recipe and treated under apparently similar conditions is entirely satisfactory. The difference may be due to either of several causes. One lot of fruit may be overripe or may contain a greater or less proportion of fruit sugar than another. Or the difference may be caused by too rapid or prolonged boiling. Fruit picked during a cold, wet season or immediately after a rain will contain a good deal more water and consequently a less proportion of sugar than if picked after a prolonged period of heat and sunshine. Hence if the proportion of sugar is determined solely by measurement, somewhat less than a pint of sugar will be required for a pint of juice during wet seasons and vice versa. For the same reason small fruits should be washed quickly and thoroughly drained to prevent their absorbing much water. But the use of the sirup gauge will obviate all such difficulties. It measures the exact amount of sugar present, including both the natural fruit sugar and cane sugar added in the process of preserving.

CANNING FRUIT AND VEGETABLES Hence, in general, select for jelly making juicy fruit picked during a period of sunshine, or at least preferably not immediately after rain. Wash quickly, drain, express the juice, add to the clear juice about 1 pint more or less of granulated sugar to the pint of juice, boil, skim and pour into tumblers or small jars.

Acid fruits make the best jelly and the following are to be preferred in the order given: Currant, crab-apple, apple, quince, grape, blackberry, raspberry, peach. Wild raspberries, blackberries, barberries, grapes and beech-plums all make delicious jellies. Take care to choose barberries that are fresh and not overripe. Sweet fruits, such as apples, make a very mild jelly, but may be flavored with fruits, flowers or spices, but with the sour varieties this will not be necessary. Some fruits, such as the strawberry, contain very little pectin and are difficult to jell without the addition of some other fruit juice, such as the currant, when a pleasant jelly will result.

Currant Jelly. - To make good jelly from currants, raspberries, blackberries, ripe grapes and plums, proceed as follows: Pick over the fruit and remove all leaves, large stems and the like. Wash quickly, drain, and put fruit over the fire in a preserving kettle. Crush with a wooden vegetable masher or spoon enough to start the juice, heat slowly and stir frequently. When hot crush thoroughly with the vegetable masher.

Express the juice into a large bowl through two thicknesses of cheese cloth spread over a hair or wire sieve. Let the juice drip without pressure, merely moving the pulp about by lifting the corners of the cheese cloth and slightly shaking the contents until all the free juice has been obtained. Use this to make the best quality of jelly either as it is or after first passing it through a flannel or woolen cloth or jelly bag.

This will make a somewhat more transparent jell. Now remove the sieve to another bowl, twist the corners of the cheese cloth and squeeze out as much more juice as can be obtained. Use this to make jelly of a lower grade.

Measure the juice into a clean preserving kettle and stir in a pint of granulated sugar for every pint of juice until the sugar is dissolved.

Place over the fire and bring to a boil slowly. Observe carefully the moment it begins to boil, withdraw from the fire and skim. Again bring to a boil, remove and skim a second and third time. Then pour into hot sterilized glasses and place these on a hot sunny window-sill covered preferably with panes of glass. When cool and firm seal and store in a dark, cool place.

Or jelly may be prepared directly from the strained juice without boiling by dissolving the required amount of sugar in the cold juice, pouring it into warm sterilized glasses and otherwise treating as before. Such jelly is more delicate but does not keep quite so well.

Other good jellies may be made by the same process from a mixture of equal parts of currants and raspberries, or a mixture of 10 quarts of strawberries with 2 quarts of currants, but the last mentioned must be boiled fifteen minutes.

For ripe grape jelly choose an acid grape, as the sweet varieties contain too much sugar, or use half ripe fruit or equal portions of nearly ripe and green grapes. Wild grapes are excellent.