CHAPTER XX
CANNING AND PRESERVING
To get the best results in canning and preserving fruits and vegetables (disregarding, of course, the necessity of good recipes, for this is not a cooking history in any sense of the word) you must use the best set of utensils.
It has now been proven that the process of packing fruits and vegetables into containers, and sterilizing them after packing, is a better method than the old way of cooking in an open kettle, transferring hot to the jar, and sealing without further sterilization. Therefore, you must know what utensils to use for the process (that is, the final application of heat to the sterilized product) as well as for the packing.
There are canners made for the express purpose of doing this work and they must be chosen for the amount of work necessary to be done. The small, hot-water canner is the least expensive for home use and is good for fruits and tomatoes. These two are canned in this safely at the boiling point, and are often better than products processed at higher temperature in other canners. If you have not got a water-seal canner or a cast-iron, steam-pressure canner, or a small, portable hot-water canner (water bath canner), you can use a wash boiler or bucket or an aluminum or enamel combination roaster-canner, or an enamel or aluminum boiler, if you place the bottles of fruit during the processing on a false bottom and put on a tight cover.
The false bottom, of course, is best made of strips of wood and keeps the glass jars from contact with the metal container, which is dangerously near the flame. This, of course, is to prevent breakage. You can use wire netting and galvanized trays, which must be raised 1″ to 2″ above the vessel floor to permit circulation of water underneath the jars.
A very simple steam-canner is on the market now, made of copper covered with nickel.
THE PROCESSES OF CANNING
The processes of canning are well known--the cleansing of fruits and containers, the scalding or blanching, cold dipping, packing, processing, air releasing and sealing. For these processes the following articles are used: Colander; steamer for blanching; preserving kettle when preserving; ladle; measuring cup; funnel; canner or aluminum or enamel roaster-canner; strainer; dipper; silver knife; shallow trays; pans; vegetable brushes for cleaning; sieve; squares of cheese cloth also for blanching; wire basket; teaspoon; spatula (a most convenient pliable blade to use like a paddle to let air out of the jars before sealing); scales; and saccharometer if accurate work is necessary in preserving. Wooden spoons and saucepans are necessary if the product to be packed is to be cooked. Also the indispensable handle with which to lift the jar from the hot processing utensil.
In using the aluminum roaster and canner with rack, fill half the lower pan with hot water. Place the rack in position, and set the jars on the rack. Place the caps on the jars lightly--do not screw them down tight. Place the cover on the canner, being sure that the ventilator is closed tight in order to confine all the steam.
Only one burner is necessary in case a gas, gasoline or oil stove is used. After the water begins to boil, the flame may be turned down one-third to one-half--just keep the water boiling nicely for the proper length of time as per schedule.
When the time necessary for sterilization has elapsed, remove the cover from the canner, and the jars can be taken out without difficulty.
Then come the mechanical parers, hullers for strawberries, stones for cherries, corers and slicers, all valuable when the products to be preserved or canned are in sufficient quantity to warrant their purchase. Of course, a good steel knife must always be in the kitchen, and a thermometer makes work less haphazard, for the kitchen without a thermometer is like a motor car without a speedometer.
PRESERVING AND CANNING JARS
Probably of all the pernickety parts of preserving and canning operations, the jar question is the most jarring (pardon the pun, but it truly must have had its genesis here, and one can’t refrain from putting a joke back on its native heath!).
We will entirely disregard the tin container because it is rarely, if ever, used in the home. In the use of glass jars the same attributes of construction, efficiency, utility and economy must be considered. There are numerous brands and variations of these brands on the market. Sometimes, in a canning or preserving operation, strange to say, the contents of five jars will turn out well, and the sixth will be a failure. This is, of course, due to the human or inhuman equation. Here are some of the types:
1. Glass jars with metal screw tops lined with porcelain, made more air-tight by a rubber ring. These tops can be used again and again.
2. Glass jars with glass tops fastened by a wire clamp, plus the rubber ring. The tops are usable again and again.
3. Glass jars with flat metal tops held on temporarily by a metal clamp until firmly sealed and then taken off. These look neat and ship-shape, but the top must be punctured before its removal and therefore new caps must be bought each time.
4. Glass jars with flat metal cap over the rubber ring and a bracelet ring with thread and overlapping top edge which, when screwed over, holds the top securely. These tops can be used indefinitely.
5. Glass jar with hermetic seal with lacquered metal top; around the inner edge of the top is a narrow lining of a composition which, when heated, softens and sticks to glass, and while the adhering is going on a wire clamp holds it together and is removed after it is sealed. It is self-sealing but you are unable to remove cover if for any reason during the processing it has to be removed.
The government has this to say about the types mentioned above:
“If the old-fashioned screw-top jar is used (No. 1), good caps are essential for safety. After having been used the edge of this cap becomes flared and the porcelain lining frequently is loosened from the top. This lid then not only is difficult to sterilize but may fail to give an air-tight seal. If such jars are on hand and must be used, it will be better to use them for the canning of fruits, preserves, and other products which are easily processed and to secure jars of the lightning-seal type for vegetables which are more difficult to preserve.”
In preserving it is always well to put a three-ply hot towel underneath the jar when pouring hot material into the jar to insure against breakage--_especially_ when the table has a glass or porcelain-like top.
SEALING TESTS
If, after twenty-four hours, the seal or hermetic jars can be lifted by their lids without falling from grace or from anything else, the seal is pretty sure to keep the contents in good shape.
Screw-top jars can be tested by inverting in order to discover leakage. All jars should be tested and reprocessed if jars leak.
Sad to say, foods in the best seal containers are often ravaged by the culinary Bolsheviki which are bacteria forming in the most airless jars. Unless all the bacteria are killed in processing, the tight seal is no indication of salvation.
To make safety surer, the laws of cleanliness must be observed to a scrupulous degree. The table scoured and covered with oil cloth, to prevent dirt; refuse cans near at hand to prevent any accumulations of bacteria or decay; containers and tops boiled at least fifteen minutes before using, and used as soon after as is possible, and then inverted either in water or on an exquisitely clean surface until used. Rubber rings for sealing jars must be cleaned immediately before using by dropping, for one minute, into a boiling solution of soda and water (one quart of water to one teaspoonful of soda) and removing quickly from fire to prevent rubber deterioration. Buy only the very best rubber rings on the market or else your crop may fail. New rings must be bought for every canning and preserving process.
Preserving is the result when whole fruits are cooked in syrup until the syrup is clear and transparent. The object is to have the fruit thoroughly permeated with the syrup. Preserving then is the process of introducing syrup into the fruit.
A United States Government authority says: “In order to prevent shrinkage it is necessary to put fruit at first into this syrup and increase its density slowly enough for diffusion to take place and for the fruit to be permeated with the syrup. This is done by boiling the fruit in syrup or by alternately cooking and allowing the product to stand immersed in the syrup, the density of the syrup being increased by evaporation or by substituting a heavier syrup for the lighter one after each period of standing. If at any time the fruit shrivels or wrinkles the syrup should be made less dense by the addition of water. If this process be carried on gradually enough the fruit may be completely saturated with sugar (as is the case with crystallized products) without shrinking.”
DENSITY MEASURES
When there is much preserving to do, and absolute accuracy is a saver of money and time, a measure is used for determining the density of the liquids. This is called a saccharometer. It is inexpensive, about the same price as a thermometer, and consists of a long glass spindle like a thermometer with a scale on it, but, instead of mercury, the bulb is full of shot. When put in a vessel of water it rests at the bottom of the vessel and registers zero. As the density increases the spindle rises until the solution is saturated with sugar at the temperature indicated, the reading being one hundred. This, however, is the Balling scale. The Brix scale is more accurate and is more expensive. When using a saccharometer use a 250 cubic centimeter glass cylinder, or a brass saccharometer cup for the liquid.
The preserving kettle and the rest of the list of tools can be used for preserving. For cooling, enamel or aluminum trays are the best. Fruits will discolor tin. When jars are full, as mentioned before, slip a paddle, silver knife (silver doesn’t discolor fruit) or spatula through the fruit next to the container when packed to remove air bubbles.
ALUMINUM UTENSILS
Aluminum is light and enduring and contrary to allegations, cooking acids in aluminum utensils does no harm whatever. In fact, if any chemical action should take place, it does in the aluminum, and not in the food. Chemists use it to cook acids in sometimes which is a proof of the hardness of it in cooking fruit acids.
If compounds were formed with aluminum, they are entirely harmless and have no more effect than any of the organic salts. Salts solutions can be cooked in aluminum, but don’t store a concentrated brine as pickling mixtures in aluminum, or the aluminum may become pitted.
To clean aluminum never use a strong alkali. Steel wool is the best cleanser on the market at present. If when a utensil is washed any slight stains or discoloration on the inside are immediately removed with some steel wool and a mild soap, it will be kept in a bright and shiny condition all the time.
Oxalic acid is often recommended as one means of removing the discoloration from aluminum, as it unites so readily with the iron or mineral deposit which sometimes forms on the aluminum from the action of hard water. This, however, we do not generally recommend as it is not a safe plan to have it around.
ENAMEL WARE
Enamel ware has a steel basis coated with porcelain. Probably no cooking utensil has so long and classic an inheritance, for enamel on metal, as jewelry, comes to us from the ancients, but it is not until modern times that this process has been used for cookery.
The porcelain or enamel is so spread, hardened and annealed or tempered that it is about as elastic as the steel and therefore does not break or crack under high temperatures. But the cheaper qualities are not reliable; consequently buy the best. There is no chance of appendicitis in using enamel ware for never has any intestinal disturbance been found to have originated from chipping enamel (as has been said by enamel’s enemies).
So have no fear about using good quality enamel or aluminum or any other of the best quality utensils sold to you by reputable manufacturers. You are not only safe but fortunate when you can afford the best variety of the best species.
The enamel merchants say that their ware is decorative and therefore lends charm to the kitchen because it can be bought in blue, green, white, gray, maroon, etc., and we add, too, that aluminum is decorative and it adds a silver-like touch to a well put-together kitchen.
Enamel is cleaned like a china plate, with plain water and good soap; whereas burn adheres more tightly to an enamel dish than an aluminum dish, it is easily removed and the upkeep simple and swift, adding much comfort to the housewife.
In the purchase of any utensil, see that it is smooth, seamless, crackless, air-bubbleless, and light in weight.
ELECTRIC CANNING AND PRESERVING
When it comes to canning and preserving, the electrically equipped kitchen is splendidly prepared to handle this matter with the greatest ease and facility. Where there is a large electric range, it is unnecessary to have any additional canning machinery, for the sterilizing of the jars can be done right in the oven of the range. The jars may or may not be immersed in a water-bath, just as it suits the cook, without the bath is certainly easier and quicker, for the jars, when cold-packed in the usual way, are merely set on a rack in the oven. In this case, however, care must be observed not to keep them there the full length of time prescribed in the water-bath method, lest the rubber rings be scorched and afterwards develop defects.
Failing a large electric range, the next best thing is the electric fireless cooker. Into this, a few jars may be placed at a time, kept at “high heat” long enough for the contents to reach the boiling point, when the automatic time-clock attachment will then throw the cooker on the “low” for the sterilization period. This method of canning is
## particularly desirable for suburban households where the kitchen garden
is only of medium size; in that case the “crops” usually are produced in just about the quantity to make this the normal way of canning. With both of these electrical methods, it will be noticed that there is no huge, cumbersome and heavy boiler to be handled, a great labor-saving feature.
In the electric kitchen, jams and marmalades are made in open kettles on top of the stove, or for that matter, can be cooked on the much smaller table appliances. The even, dependable temperature furnished by electric heat is appreciated in these long, slow-cooking processes, where with other methods, there is danger of burning unless ceaseless watch is maintained.
In some of the new stoves, you can set the containers right in the oven (see Gas Ranges Chapter VII also Electric Ranges Chapter VI and Oil Stoves