Chapter 19

If the fruit is to be cooked previous to being put in the cans, the cans should be heated before the introduction of the fruit, which should be put in at a boiling temperature. Various methods are employed for this purpose. Some wrap the can in a towel wrung out of hot water, keeping a silver spoon inside while it is being filled; others employ dry heat by keeping the cans in a moderately hot oven while the fruit is cooking.

Another and surer way is to fill a large dishpan nearly full of scalding (not boiling) water, then gradually introduce each can, previously baked, into the water, dip it full of water, and set it right side up in the pan. Repeat the process with other cans until four or five are ready. Put the covers likewise into boiling water. Have in readiness for use a granite-ware funnel and dipper, also in boiling water; a cloth for wiping the outside of the cans, a silver fork or spoon, a dish for emptyings, and a broad shallow pan on one side of the range, half filled with boiling water, in which to set the cans while being filled. When everything is in readiness, the fruit properly cooked, and _at a boiling temperature,_ turn one of the cans down in the water, roll it over once or twice, empty it, and set in the shallow pan of hot water; adjust the funnel, and then place first in the can a quantity of juice, so that when the fruit is put in, no vacant places will be left for air, which is sometimes quite troublesome if this precaution is not taken; then add the fruit. If any bubbles of air chance to be left, work them out with a fork or spoon handle, which first dip in boiling water, and then quickly introduce down the sides of the jar and through the fruit in such a way that not a bubble will remain. Fill the can to overflowing, remembering that any vacuum invites the air to enter; use boiling water or syrup when there is not enough juice. Skim all froth from the fruit, adding more juice if necessary; wipe the juice from the top of the can, adjust the rubber, put on the top, and screw it down as quickly as possible. If the fruit is cooked in the cans, as soon as it is sufficiently heated, fill the can completely full with boiling juice, syrup, or water; run the handle of a silver spoon around the inside of the can, to make sure the juice entirely surrounds every portion of fruit, and that no spaces for air remain, put on the rubbers, wipe off all juice, and seal quickly.

As the fruit cools, the cover can be tightened, and this should be promptly done again and again as the glass contracts, so that no air may be allowed to enter.

If convenient to fill the cans directly from the stove, the fruit may be kept at boiling heat by placing the kettle on a lamp stove on the table, on which the other utensils are in readiness. Many failures in fruit canning are due to neglect to have the fruit boiling hot when put into the cans.

When the cans are filled, set them away from currents of air, and not on a very cold surface, to avoid danger of cracking. A good way is to set the cans on a wet towel, and cover with a woolen cloth as a protection from draughts.

After the cans have cooled, and the tops have been screwed down tightly, place them in a cool place, bottom upward, and watch closely for a few days. If the juice begins to leak out, or any appearance of fermentation is seen, it is a sign that the work has failed, and the only thing to do is to open the can immediately, boil the fruit, and use as quickly as possible; recanning will not save it unless boiled a long time. If no signs of spoiling are observed within two or three weeks, the fruit may be safely stored away in a dark, cool place. If one has no dark storeroom, it is an advantage to wrap each can in brown paper, to keep out the light.

Sometimes the fruit will settle so that a little space appears at the top. If you are perfectly sure that the can is tight, do not open to refill, as you will be unable to make it quite as tight again, unless you reheat the fruit, in which case you would be liable to have the same thing occur again. Air is dangerous because it is likely to contain germs, though in itself harmless.

If mold is observed upon the top of a can, it should be opened, and the fruit boiled and used at once, after carefully skimming out all the moldy portions. If there is evidence of fermentation, the fruit should be thrown away, as it contains alcohol.

If care be taken to provide good cans, thoroughly sterilized, and with perfectly fitting covers; to use only fruit in good condition; to have it thoroughly cooked, and at boiling temperature when put into the can; to have the cans well baked and heated, filled completely and to overflowing, and sealed at once while the fruit is still near boiling temperature, there will be little likelihood of failure.

OPENING CANNED FRUIT.--Canned fruit is best opened a short time before needed, that is may be will aërated; and if it has been canned without sugar, it should have the necessary quantity added, so that it may be well dissolved before using.

Fruit purchased in tin cans should be selected with the utmost care, since unscrupulous dealers sometimes use cans which render the fruit wholly--unfit for food.

The following rules which we quote from a popular scientific journal should be 'carefully observed in selecting canned fruit:--

"Reject every can that does not have the name of the manufacturer or firm upon it, as well as the name of the company and the town where manufactured. All 'Standards' have this. When the wholesale dealer is ashamed to have his name on the goods, be shy of him.

"Reject every article of canned goods which does not show the line of resin around the edge of the solder of the cap, the same as is seen on the seam at the side of the can.

"Press up the bottom of the can; if decomposition is beginning, the tin will rattle the same as the bottom of your sewing-machine oil can does. If the goods are sound, it will be solid, and there will be no rattle to the tin.

"Reject every can that show any rust around the cap on the inside of the head of the can. Old and battered cans should be rejected; as, if they have been used several times, the contents are liable to contain small amounts of tin or lead"

_RECIPES._

TO CAN STRAWBERRIES.--These are generally considered more difficult to can than most other berries. Use none but sound fruit, and put up the day they are picked, if possible. Heat the fruit slowly to the boiling point, and cook fifteen minutes or longer, adding the sugar hot, if any be used, after the fruit is boiling. Strawberries, while cooking, have a tendency to rise to the top, and unless they are kept poshed down, will not be cooked uniformly, which is doubtless one reason they sometimes fail to keep well. The froth should also be kept skimmed off. Fill the cans as directed on page 197, taking special care to let out every air bubble, and to remove every particle of froth from the top of the can before sealing. If the berries are of good size, the may be cooked in the cans, adding a boiling syrup prepared with one cup of water and one of sugar for each quart can of fruit.

If after the cans are cold, the fruit rises to the top, as it frequently does, take the cans and gently shake until the fruit is well saturated with the juice and falls by its own weight to the bottom, or low enough to be entirely covered with the liquid.

TO CAN RASPBERRIES, BLACKBERRIES, AND OTHER SMALL FRUITS.--Select none but good, sound berries; those freshly picked are best; reject any green, over-ripe, mashed, or worm-eaten fruit. If necessary to wash the berries, do so by putting a quart at a time in a colander, and dipping the dish carefully into a pan of clean water, letting it stand for a moment. If the water is very dirty, repeat the process in a second water. Drain thoroughly, and if to be cooked previous to putting in the cans, put into a porcelain kettle with a very small quantity of water, and heat slowly to boiling. If sugar is to be used, have it hot, but do not add it until the fruit is boiling; and before doing so, if there is much juice, dip out the surplus, and leave the berries with only a small quantity, as the sugar will have a tendency to draw out more juice, thus furnishing plenty for syrup.

Raspberries are so juicy that they need scarcely more than a pint of water to two quarts of fruit.

The fruit may be steamed in the cans if preferred. When thoroughly scalded, if sugar is to be used, fill the can with a boiling syrup made by dissolving the requisite amount of sugar in water; if to be canned without sugar, fill up the can with boiling water or juice.

Seal the fruit according to directions previously given.

TO CAN GOOSEBERRIES.--Select such as are smooth and turning red, but not fully ripe; wash and remove the stems and blossom ends. For three quarts of fruit allow one quart of water. Heat slowly to boiling; cook fifteen minutes, add a cupful of sugar which has been heated dry in the oven: boil two or three minutes longer, and can.

TO CAN PEACHES.--Select fruit which is perfectly ripe and sound, but not much softened. Free-stone peaches are the best. Put a few at a time in a wire basket, and dip into boiling water for a moment, and then into cold water, to cool fruit sufficiently to handle with comfort. The skins may then be rubbed or peeled off easily, if done quickly, and the fruit divided into halves; or wipe with a clean cloth to remove all dirt and the wool, and with a silver knife cut in halves, remove the stone, and then pare each piece, dropping into cold water at once to prevent discoloration. Peaches cut before being pared are less likely to break in pieces while removing the stones. When ready, pour a cupful of water in the bottom of the kettle, and fill with peaches, scattering sugar among the layers in the proportion of a heaping tablespoonful to a quart of fruit. Heat slowly, boil fifteen minutes or longer till a silver fork can be easily passed through the pieces; can in the usual way and seal; or, fill the cans with the halved peaches, and place them in a boiler of warm water with something underneath to avoid breaking; cook until perfectly tender. Have ready a boiling syrup prepared with one half cup of sugar and two cups of water, and pour into each can all that it will hold, remove air bubbles, cover and seal. A few of the pits may be cooked in the syrup, and removed before adding to the fruit, when their special flavor is desired.

ANOTHER METHOD.--After paring and halving the fruit, lay a clean napkin in the bottom of a steamer; fill with fruit. Steam until a fork will easily penetrate the pieces. Have ready a boiling syrup prepared as directed above, put a few spoonfuls in the bottom of the hot cans, and dip each piece of fruit gently in the hot syrup; then as carefully place it in the jars. Fill with the syrup, and finish in the usual way.

Peaches canned without sugar, retain more nearly their natural flavor. To prepare in this way, allow one half pint of water to each pound of fruit. Cook slowly until tender, and can in the usual manner. When wanted for the table, open an hour before needed, and sprinkle lightly with sugar.

TO CAN PEARS.--The pears should be perfectly ripened, but not soft. Pare with a silver knife, halve or quarter, remove the seeds and drop into a pan of cold water to prevent discoloration. Prepare a syrup, allowing a cup of sugar and a quart of water to each two quarts of fruit. When the syrup boils, put the pears into it very carefully, so as not to bruise or break them, and cook until they look clear and can be easily pierced with a fork. Have the cans heated, and put in first a little of the syrup, then pack in the pears very carefully; fill to overflowing with the scalding syrup, and finish as previously directed. The tougher and harder varieties of pears must be cooked till nearly tender in hot water, or steamed over a kettle of boiling water, before adding to the syrup, and may then be finished as above. If it is desirable to keep the pears whole, cook only those of a uniform size together; or if of assorted sizes, put the larger ones into the syrup a few minutes before the smaller ones. Some prefer boiling the kins of the pears in the water of which the syrup is to be made, and skimming them out before putting in the sugar. This is thought to impart a finer flavor. Pears which are very sweet, or nearly tasteless, may be improved by using the juice of a large lemon for each quart of syrup. Pears may be cooked in the cans, if preferred.

TO CAN PLUMS.--Green Gages and Damsons are best for canning. Wipe clean with a soft cloth. Allow a half cup of water and the same of sugar to every three quarts of fruit, in preparing a syrup. Pick each plum with a silver fork to prevent it from bursting, and while the syrup is heating, turn in the fruit, and boil until thoroughly done. Dip carefully into hot jars, fill with syrup, and cover immediately.

TO CAN CHERRIES.--These may be put up whole in the same way as plums, or pitted and treated as directed for berries, allowing about two quarts of water and a scant pint of sugar to five quarts of solid fruit, for the tart varieties, and not quite half as much sugar for the sweeter ones.

TO CAN MIXED FRUIT.--There are some fruits with so little flavor that when cooked they are apt to taste insipid, and are much improved by canning with some acid or strongly flavored fruits.

Blackberries put up with equal quantities of blue or red plums, or in the proportion of one to three of the sour fruit, are much better than either of these fruits canned separately. Black caps are much better if canned with currants, in the proportion of one part currants to four of black caps.

Red and black raspberries, cherries and raspberries, are also excellent combinations.

QUINCES WITH APPLES.--Pare and cut an equal quantity of firm sweet apples and quinces. First stew the quinces till they are tender in sufficient water to cover. Take them out, and cook the apples in the same water. Lay the apples and quinces in alternate layers in a porcelain kettle or crock. Have ready a hot syrup made with one part sugar to two and a half parts water, pour over the fruit, and let it stand all night. The next day reheat to boiling, and can.

Quinces and sweet apples may be canned in the same way as directed below for plums and sweet apples, using equal parts of apples and quinces, and adding sugar when opened.

PLUMS WITH SWEET APPLES.--Prepare the plums, and stew in water enough to cover. When tender, skim out, add to the juice an equal quantity of quartered sweet apples, and stew until nearly tender. Add the plumbs again, boil together for a few minutes, and can. When wanted for the table, open, sprinkle with sugar if any seems needed, let stand awhile and serve.

TO CAN GRAPES.--Grapes have so many seeds that they do not form a very palatable sauce when canned entire. Pick carefully from the stems, wash in a colander the same as directed for berries, and drain. Remove the skins, dropping them into one earthen crock and the pulp into another. Place both crocks in kettles of hot water over the stove, and heat slowly, stirring the pulp occasionally until the seeds will come out clean.

Then rub the pulp through a colander, add the skins to it, and a cupful of sugar for each quart of pulp. Return to the fire, boil twenty minutes until the skins are tender, and can; or, if preferred, the whole grapes may be heated, and when well scalded so that the seeds are loosened, pressed through a colander, thus rejecting both seeds and skins, boiled, then sweetened if desired, and canned.

TO CAN CRAB APPLES.--These may be cooked whole, and canned the same way as plums.

TO CAN APPLES.--Prepare and can the same as pears, when fresh and fine in flavor. If old and rather tasteless, the following is a good way:--several thin slices of the yellow part of the rind, four cups of sugar, and three pints of boiling water. Pare and quarter the apples, or if small, only halve them, and cook gently in a broad-bottomed closely-covered saucepan, with as little water as possible, till tender, but not broken; then pour the syrup over them, heat all to boiling, and can at once. The apples may be cooked by steaming over a kettle of hot water, if preferred. Care must be taken to cook those of the same degree of hardness together. The slices of lemon rind should be removed from the syrup before using.

TO CAN PINEAPPLES.--The writer has had no experience in canning this fruit, but the following method is given on good authority: Pare very carefully with a silver knife, remove all the "eyes" and black specks; then cut the sections in which the "eyes" were, in solid pieces clear down to the core. By doing this all the valuable part of the fruit is saved, leaving its hard, woody center. As, however, this contains considerable juice, it should be taken in the hands and wrung as one wrings a cloth, till the juice is extracted, then thrown away. Prepare a syrup with one part sugar and two parts water, using what juice has been obtained in place of so much water. Let it boil up, skim clean, then add the fruit. Boil just as little as possible and have the fruit tender, as pineapples loses its flavor by overcooking more readily than any other fruit. Put into hot cans, and seal.

FRUIT JELLIES.

The excess of sugar commonly employed in preparing jellies often renders them the least wholesome of fruit preparations, and we cannot recommend our readers to spend a great amount of time in putting up a large stock of such articles.

The juice of some fruits taken at the right stage of maturity may be evaporated to a jelly without sugar, but the process is a more lengthy one, and requires a much larger quantity of juice than when sugar is used.

Success in the preparation of fruit jellies depends chiefly upon the amount of pectose contained in the fruit. Such fruits as peaches, cherries, and others containing but a small proportion of pectose, cannot be made into a firm jelly. All fruit for jelly should, if possible, be freshly picked, and before it is over-ripe, as it has then a much better flavor. The pectose, the jelly-producing element, deteriorates with age, so that jelly made from over-ripe fruit is less certain to "form." If the fruit is under-ripe, it will be too acid to give a pleasant flavor. Examine carefully, as for canning, rejecting all wormy, knotty, unripe, or partially decayed fruit. If necessary to wash, drain very thoroughly.

Apples, quinces, and similar fruits may require to be first cooked in a small amount of water. The juice of berries, currants, and grapes, may be best extracted by putting the fruit in a granite-ware double boiler, or a covered earthen crock placed inside a kettle of boiling water, mashing as much as possible with a spoon, and steaming without the addition of water until the fruit is well scalded and broken.

For straining the juice, have a funnel-shaped bag made of coarse flannel or strong, coarse linen crash. The bag will be found more handy if a small hoop of wire is sewn around the top and two tapes attached to hang it by while the hot juice is draining, or a wooden frame to support the bag may be easily constructed like the one shown on page 74. A dish to receive the juice should be placed underneath the bag, which should first be wrung out of hot water, and the scalded fruit, a small quantity at a time, turned in; then with two large spoons press the sides of the bag well, moving the fruit around in the bag to get out all the juice, and removing the pressed pulp and skins each time before putting in a fresh supply of the hot fruit. If a very clear jelly is desired, the juice must be allowed to drain out without pressing or squeezing. The juice of berries, grapes, and currants may be extracted without the fruit being first scalded, if preferred, by putting the fruit into an earthen or granite-ware dish, and mashing well with a wooden potato masher, then putting into a jelly bag and allowing the juice to drain off for several hours.

When strained, if the jelly is to be prepared with sugar, measure the juice and pour it into a granite or porcelain fruit kettle with a very broad bottom, so that as much surface can be on the stove possible. It is better to boil the juice in quantities of not more than two or three quarts at a time, unless one has some utensil in which a larger quantity can be cooked with no greater depth of liquid than the above quantity would give in a common fruit kettle. The purpose of the boiling is to evaporate the water from the juice, and this can best be accomplished before the sugar is added. The sugar, if boiled with the juice, also darkens the jelly.

The average length of time required for boiling the juice of most berries, currants, and grapes, extracted as previously directed, before adding the sugar, is twenty minutes from the time it begins to bubble all over its surface. It is well to test the jelly occasionally, however, by dropping a small quantity on a plate to cool, since the quantity of juice and the rapidity with which it is boiled, may necessitate some variation in time. In wet season, fruits of all kinds absorb more moisture and a little longer boiling may be necessary. The same is true of the juice of fruits gathered after a heavy rain. Jellies prepared with sugar are generally made of equal measures of juice, measured before boiling, and sugar; but a very scant measure of sugar is sufficient, and a less amount will suffice for many fruits. White granulated sugar is best for all jellies. While the juice is heating, spread the sugar evenly on shallow tins, and heat in the oven, stirring occasionally to keep it from scorching. If portions melt, no great harm will be done, as the melted portions will form in lumps when turned into the juice, and can be removed with a spoon. When the juice has boiled twenty minutes, turn in the sugar, which should be so hot that the hand cannot be borne in it with comfort, stirring rapidly until it is all dissolved. Let the syrup boil again for three or four minutes, then take immediately from the fire. Heat the jelly glasses (those with glass covers are best), by rolling in hot water, and place them in a shallow pan partially filled with hot water, or stand them on a wet, folded towel while filling. If it is desired to have the jelly exceptionally clear and nice, it may be turned through a bag of cheese cloth, previously wrung out of hot water, into the jelly glasses. If the covers of the glasses are not tight fitting, a piece of firm paper should be fitted over the top before putting on the cover, to make it air tight. Pint self-sealing fruit cans are excellent for storing jelly, and if it is sealed in them in the same manner as canned fruit, will keep perfectly, and obviate any supposed necessity for the use of brandied paper as a preservative measure. Label each variety, and keep in some cool, dry place. If the jelly is not sufficiently firm when first made, set the glasses in the sunshine for several days, until the jelly becomes more firm. This is better than reheating and boiling again, as it destroys less of the flavor of the fruit.

_RECIPES._