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Show I HOME CANNED PEACHES DELICIOUS I I WHETHER CLING OR FREE-STONE t v - pzt"r . - rt - f , - J Photo Courtesy Ball Bros. Co. Clingstone peaches are excellent, but a great many persons prefer the flavor of freestone fruit and also find it somewhat less troublesome to prepare for canning. Whether cling or freestone, good raw peaches make good canned ones, provided they are canned right, but right canning can do nothing for greenish, bitterish, poorly flavored fruit Gladys Kimbrough, Home Service Director for Ball Brothers Company, Compa-ny, advises those who can peaches for the first time, and those whose canned peaches are below par, to select tree-ripened fruit, when possible, pos-sible, and sort it for size, color, and condition before washing and peeling peel-ing it. Skins may be stripped from some well-ripened peaches after they have been scalded in boiling water about a minute and then dipped in cold water, but the general run of them require other methods of peeling. The lye method, while practical when a large quantity is to be canned, requires skill. To lye peel, put four tablespoons concentrated lye in an enamel or granite kettle. Add two gallons water and heat to boiling. Put peaches in a basket and hold in the boiling lye from thirty to sixty seconds; then wash immediately in cold water. Rinse through several waters to remove all skins and all traces of lye. The fruit will darken if left in lye too long or if not well rinsed. Usually, paring with a knife is the most practical way of peeling. The peaches should be washed clean and drained before peeling. After peeling, peel-ing, the fruit should be cut in half, and the stones discarded. Freestone fruit has better flavor and nicer, cleaner appearance if the red fibers are cut or scraped from the cavities. cavi-ties. Dropping the peeled peaches into weak salt-vinegar water (one tablespoon table-spoon each to one gallon of water) helps prevent discoloring. They should not be left in the water longer long-er than thirty or forty minutes and must be well rinsed before canning. Clingstone peaches are prepared for canning by removing the skins by one of the methods described above. Clings may be halved (before (be-fore peeling) by cutting around the peach with a sharp knife, begin-'ling begin-'ling at the stem end and following follow-ing the crease. After cutting, hold che peach with both hands and twist n opposite directions. This pulls me side away from the stone. Use i regular peach pitting spoon, a teaspoon, or a knife to remove the stone from the other half of the i peach. Peel the halves by scalding, scald-ing, by the lye method, or by paring with knife. If preferred, the peach may be peeled and then halved by cutting around the stone with knife. The easiest way to remove the flesh from the stone is to cut it in wedge-shaped wedge-shaped slices. Miss Kimbrough recommends hot packing and processing in a hot-water hot-water bath canner. Here are her two favorite recipes: (Use the longer long-er cooking and processing time for clings and other very fine peaches.) Method I. Make a sirup of 1 or 2 parts sugar to 1 of water, depending upon the amount liked and the amount available. Add peaches, a few at a time, and simmer until hot through (4 to 10 minutes). Pack into hot jars, layers overlapping, cavity side down. Cover with sirup in which peaches were cooked. Process Proc-ess (cook in jar) 10 to 20 minutes in hot-water bath. Can left-over sirup for pudding or ice cream sauce. Method II. Add from 1 to 1 cup sugar and one cup boiling water to one gallon prepared peaches. Cook gently until peaches . are hot through and sugar dissolved (10 to 20 minutes). min-utes). Pack and process as instructed instruct-ed above. If there isn't enough liquid liq-uid to cover peaches in jar, add boiling boil-ing water after they are packed. If one is short of sugar, a sirup may be made by boiling two cups white corn sirup, two cups sugar, one cup water, and one-eighth teaspoon tea-spoon salt together five minutes. Honey may be used instead of sugar but it changes the flavor, and sometimes some-times the color, of the fruit. From three-quarters to one cup sirup is usually needed for one quart ol peaches. The fruit should be well covered with liquid. (If one runs out of sugar, peaches may be canned with plain boiling water. They keep just as well that way but do not have as good flavor.) Once fine fruit is selected, carefully care-fully prepared and processed right, canning success is assured if jars and caps are used according to the manufacturers' instructions. These instructions will be found on printed leaflets packed in every carton. |