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Show CAN FRUITS FOR DELICIOUS DESSERTS I " ' ; Whether your canned fruit desserts are just or unjust depends de-pends upon the quality and flavor of the fruit. Canning preserves pre-serves quality and flavor but it cannot create it. That's Mother Nature's job but you may be surprised at the 3mount of help you can give her, All fruits (except pears) should be left on the tree, vine, Or bush until full-ripe and then canned as promptly as possible. pos-sible. Most varieties of pears should be taken from the tree when they have finished growing and kept in a cool place until they are ripe enough to serve raw. At this stage they are tender and juicy but not mellow. It pays to take time to. sort fruit so that pieces of about the same size and color can be kept together. Then the pie or fruit-cup pieces won't be mixed with those intended intend-ed for fancy looking desserts. Every Ev-ery piece of fruit should be washed carefully and drained well before the skin is broken. Skins should be removed from peaches, pears and apricots. Yes, the skin can be left on but it is impossible to have both skins and top quality. Stones may be left in peaches and ripe apricots, not that we understand why anybody would want them, but woe is more than likely to be the lot of the home canner who leaves stones in apricots which have been taken from the tree before fully ripe. Sucji apricots have a poor flavor fla-vor at best and the green stones make it even poorer. But we are going too fast! Let's remember that flavor is lost with every minute lost between the time the fruit is washed and the time it is put into the canner for processing. process-ing. Therefore, all jars, caps, lids, and rubbers should be checked, washed, rinsed, covered with water and put over heat to sterilize; water should also be put to heat in whatever what-ever is used as a water bath canner, can-ner, and all utensils and materials collected before work is started on preparing the fruit. Corn Sirup for Sweetening The sweetening story is still a little on the sour side. It can be no news to you that It may not be possible pos-sible to buy all the granulated sugar you would like to have, but shortage short-age of the cane and beet sugars need not halt your fruit canning program pro-gram because corn sirup can take over where these granulated sugars leave off, and a lot of people think the fruit better when corn sirup helps out. Gladys Kimbrough, Home Service Director for Ball Brothers Company and editor of the famous Ball Blue Book of Home Canning and Preserving Recipes, gives a basic sirup recipe which may be adjusted to meet your requirements. re-quirements. The sirup is made by combining two cups of sugar, one cup standard grade corn sirup, one cup water or fruit juice, and boiling about two minutes or until the sugar sug-ar dissolves. Either light or dark corn sirup may be used. The dark sirup is especially good with dark fruits. Its flavor blends nicely with light fruits too but it tends to add color where color may not be wanted. Miss Kimbrough recommends that, when possible, some sugar be used when putting up fruit because the flavor of sweetened fruit is more acceptable to most persons but she also makes it quite clear that fruit . will keep without sugar. When no sugar is used, the fruit should be heated in a little water or in its own juice before it is put into the jars. Whether canned with or without with-out sugar, fruit should be covered with liquid in the jar, otherwise, it is likely to discolor. Miss Kimbrough advises home canners to sweeten and flavor sirups to suit themselves. If you would like more flavor in your peaches or -Photo Courtesy Ball Bros. Co. pears, you might try adding a half teaspoon vanilla or orange, or nutmeg, nut-meg, or rum, or a few drops of almond extract to each quart of fruit. In other words, you are free to make the things you put up at home taste like you want them to taste and that is something nobody else will or can do for you. Heat Fruit Thoroughly Up-to-date canners heat fruit enough to shrink it before it is placed in the jars for processing by boiling in a hot water bath canner. can-ner. This is called hot packing. The fruit may be heated in its own juice or in sirup. One excellent way is to- measure the prepared fruit, add the sugar to it, and heat gently until the juice runs free and the sugar is dissolved. Two cups sugar and one cup corn sirup will sweeten a gallon of prepared peaches enough to suit the average taste. If the peaches are juicy, no water need be added. Pears can usually get along with a little less sugar than peaches call for but they nearly always need some water to start them cooking. Processing time varies according to the size, variety, and firmness of fruit but the average time for peaches, pears, and apricots, which have been thoroughly heated before packing, is fifteen minutes at boiling. boil-ing. Even if fruits keep, they will discolor if for any reason they have not been heated boiling hot all the way through. If you will begin with good home canned fruits, you can end with wonderful won-derful desserts which are just no bother at all to make. For example, Peaches and Cream Cake is a fitting fit-ting finish for any meal. All you do is make or buy a plain angel food or sponge cake, frost it thick with sweetened whipped cream and surround it with halves of tree-riper.ed tree-riper.ed free-stone peaches right out of your own jars. This cake should be served at the table because it is far too handsome to be cut in the kitchen. |