FoodNet

A manual of home-making

1919

Page 343

Presented as published in 1919. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
A still tlucker sirup may be de.siml)Ie for rhubarb* Roooe^ berries, currants, sour cherries, and other verj' Soiir fruits. Such a sirup may he made ljy boiling the thick sirup until it bt^gins to spin a thread instead of using it when the sugar hii Just dissolved. Methods of cannififf. Two methods of canning are commonly used both in tlit household and in the canning factory, the open-kettle method and the cold-pack method. The open-kettle method is so called because the food to bt canned is completely cooked in a kettle and then poured loto the jar. llnless the jar, the cover, the rublier^ and iH ufetisils that come in contact with tlie fwKl have becfi boiled for twenty minutes before the jars are fiUetl, and unli!a» the work is carefully done, there is alwaj's the risk that the food will be reinfected anfi that it may spoil after the jar has been sealed. For some praiucts, such as preserves, consenroi, jams, and marmalades, for which condensiition and heat more intense than that of boiling water ure needed, the (>pim*kettlf method must still Ije used. For beet«, the open-kettle method 18 recommended, because the skins can be removed after the FOOD PRESERVATION^ m cooking, and thus less color is lost. Many persons prefer the open-kettle method for rannin^ strawl)erties and tomatoes. In the SQ culled cokl-pack method, the unrt)oke<l or partly cooked fruit, vegetable, or other food Ls packeil in a can; the food is eovcred with some liquid, such as water, sirup, or juire; and both the jar and its contents are heated simultaneously in boiling water or steam. This method may be useil for most fruits and all vegetables. It is reeommeuded for meats^ be- cause it conserves the flavor and because meat may thus be canned under steam pressui^e. It is useil by all canning fac- tories for simple canned vegetables, fruits^ and meats. It is also ' being adopted gratlually by huusekt^'pers, sinre in genera! li is a safer, easier way of camiing most foods tlian the old open-kettle method, and since the product keeps much of its natural flavor. Heat may be applied in the eold-pack method in one of two ways: 1, Contiimously. (a) The cans may be coveixnl with boiling water and may be cooked continuously for a given length of time and seale<t. (b) The cans may l»e placed in a pressure canner and cooked under steam pressure for a given length of time and sealeil. 2. Intermittently, The cans may be covered with boiling water anti may be* cooked for a stated length of time on each of three succc^ssive days^ being sealeil at tlie close of each period of heating. When food is cooked in the can for a given period on each of three successive days, the process is calleti intermittent heating. Acid or sweet foods may l>e canned safely by one period of heating. It is not always safe to can certain non-acid vege- tables by a single perioit unless steam pressure is used. They may keep if cooked long enough Ijut there is always a risk. This is !>ecause of the possible presence on them of resistant] spores which are sometimes able to survive even twelve hours of continuous boiUng; The intermittent method seems to be safer for these vegetables, but only the steam pressure method can be considered wholly safe. Many vegetabl€?s ac- cepted by the housekeeper as having kept are poor in both flavor 610 A MANUAL OF HOME-MAKING