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Show Corn Home-Canned To Keep! "Corn, a favorite food of man, beast, and bacteria, is the victim of defense propaganda and I am not talking about war." Gladys Kim-brough, Kim-brough, Home Service Director of Ball Brothers Company, made the above statement and went on to explain, ex-plain, "Persons who refuse to take . the time and trouble to understand corn, defend their canning failures by claiming that it refuses to keep. The truth is, corn is more than willing will-ing to be canned, but is doomed to spoilage unless right tactics are used, because it has no acid to protect pro-tect it against the invasion of bacteria. bac-teria. Tactics? Why," says Miss Kimbrough, "they can be summed up in one sentence: i. e., learn what is to be done, begin at the right time, keep things moving, and turn on the heat." ! j ktif ft if 33 V"t p "i V - Photo Courtesy Ball Bros. Co. The first thing to be done is to get jars, lids, rubbers, and canner ready. If you have no pressure cooker, cook-er, get along with a water-bath canner. can-ner. Examine every jar and lid to see that it is in good condition remember re-member glass top seals and two-piece two-piece metal vacuum seal caps won't work unless the top edges of the jars are perfect. Wash everything clean; cover jars, glass lids and zinc caps with luke-warm water and put on the stove to heat. Cover vacuum seal lids and rubbers with boiling water and leave until needed. need-ed. "When everything is ready, gather the corn bring in no more than needed for one canner full. Keep in mind that canning too much too late is a common cause of spoilage. spoil-age. Place the corn on a board and use a strong sharp knife to cut the husks (shucks to you in the Middle Mid-dle West and South) off at each end just where the corn begins and ends. There shouldn't be any worms if you have followed Victory garden directions, but if there are worms in the tassel end, cut deep enough to leave them with the husks. The husks will come off easily and bring most of the silks with them. Examine every ear of corn and use only those having plump, glossy, juice-filled kernels. Remove all silks; rinse the corn and cut it from the cob. One or more cuttings may be made, but scrapings should not be used unless processing can be done in a pressure cooker, because tha scrapings make a thick mass that heats through slowly. Cover the corn with boiling water, using about half as much water as corn; cook five minutes; then pour immediately imme-diately into clean, hot jars. A generous gen-erous amount of water helps the corn heat through quickly and aids in preventing its sugar from carmel-izing carmel-izing and causing a brownish color. Add one teaspoon salt to the quart and seal jars according to manufacturer's manu-facturer's directions. Then put into the canner and process. If possible, use pint jars, as they heat through more rapidly the quicker the jars can be heated through, the more certain the destruction de-struction of bacteria. Process pints and quarts 70 minutes at 10 pounds pressure or by boiling 314 hours in hot-water bath. Remove the jars from the canner as promptly as possible pos-sible after processing; finish sealing all jars that require rubber rings; set jars as far apart as possible on folded newspaper or cloth so they can cool quickly, but be sure they are not where a breeze will strike them. The jars should be examined after ' twelve hours in order to make sure they are sealed. To do this, remove re-move bands from glass top seals and metal vacuum seal caps (leave the bands off when the jars are put away). Test the glass top seals by pulling gently on the lids with the finger tips. Vacuum seals are tested by pressing down on them with the fingers if sealed, they won't move under this pressure. "Lightning" type are tested by holding upside down and watching for leaks. There won't be any leaks if instructions are followed and there won't be any spoilage if you keep in mind that Vigilance means Victory. Furthermore, Further-more, you will never know how good canned corn can be until you have tasted your own home-canned brand. |