OCR Text |
Show presents in coopcrition with IS?; 7 Commandments of Canning Can only fresh food in tiptop Tmdition. Don't can wilted or overripe over-ripe or partly spoiled food. It won't keep. ' Have food, jar, everything used in canning thoroughly clean. Work quickly, so as to can the "freshness." Heat food hot enough and long enough to make bacteria and other organisms harmless, so they won't "work" in the fodd and make it spoil. Follow up-to-date directions and timetables, backed up by scientific research. Make sure jars are sealed tight, to keep spoilage organisms outside. out-side. Store canned food in a cool, dark dry place. In addition to these rules, it's smart to do right by your woods, that is to use the right method for each. For fruits, tomatoes, pickled vegetables, and the like, use a boiling-water bath. You can process pro-cess these acid foods safely in boiling water. For corn, peas, beans and other common vegetables, except ex-cept tomatoes, use a steam pressure pres-sure canner. To process these foods safely in reasonable time takes a temperature higher than boiling. It takes 240 F. or higher. The only way to get these high temperatures tempera-tures is to hold steam under pressure. pres-sure. New pressure canners are being manufactured all the time. They are no longer rationed. If you have no pressure canner, and can't buy one, team with someone who has one. Or look up a community canning can-ning center. Oven canning is dangerous in more ways than one. Even though the oven goes to 250F. or higher, food in the jars stays at about the boiling point (2121). For vegetables that's not hot enough to make bacteria bac-teria harmless. Also, oven canning has caused serious accidents to persons and property.When jars seal during processing, pro-cessing, steam builds up inside the jars and they may explode. The o-ven o-ven door may fly off . . glass may fly out . . you may be hit and seriously ser-iously hurt by the flying pieces. Is the risk worth the results? Open kettle canning is wasteful for fruits and tomatoes. When canned this way, food is cooked in an ordinary kette, then packed into' in-to' hot jars and sealed. Bacteria can get into the jars when food is transferred from kettle to jar and cause the food to spoil. For vebe-tables vebe-tables open-kettle canning is dangerous. dan-gerous. They never become hot enough to destroy the bacteria. Use this method only for preserves, pickles, and other foods with e-nough e-nough sugar or vinegar to help keep them from spoiling. And In General Before each canning season make sure a pressure canner is in perfect working- order. Use only perfect jars, lids, and rings, picked to fit your jars, and be sure you know how to use them. Sugar helps canned fruit hold its shape, color, and flavor. But usgar isn't necessary to keep fruit from spoiling. If your sugar runs short, put up some fruit without sugar, and sweeten to taste when you serve. Process unsweetened fruit the same as sweetened. On The Other Hand Home canning is not recommended recom-mended for cabbage (except as sauerkraut), cauliflower, celery, cucumbers, eggplant, lettuce, onions, on-ions, parsnips, turnips. The flavor and texture of the home-canned product is poor, or some of these egetables are better stored. Baked Bak-ed beans and foods of that kind are extremely difficult to process at home. Vegetable mixtures, take special directions for each combination combin-ation of foods, and under home conditions it is more satisfactory and safer to can foods separately and to do the combining later. The Day After Testing jars for leaks, wiping them clean, and labeling them are the final touches to your scientific operation before the canned food is put in its place to await the call to the family table. Store canned food where it's cool, dark and dry. Protect the jars against bad conditions. Warmth may make bacteria in the jars grow and multiply, and spoil the food. Hot pipes behind a wall sometimes make a shelf or closet a poor storage place. Freezing does not spoil canned food, but is may crack a jar or break a seal and let bacteria in. In an unheated place you can protect canned food from freezing to some extent by covering cover-ing with an old carpet or a blanket or by wrapping in newspapers. |