FoodNet

A practical cook and text book for general use

1896

Page 45 · 1 recipe record on this page

Presented as published in 1896. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
Many people prefer to can their fruit by steaming it. The " Mudge Fruit Cannery " has proved such a success for this purpose the wash boiler process seems a tedious operation, and will doubtless give place to this modern and scientific method of canning fruit and vegetables. In place of this, a steamer kettle or steam cooker may be used. Wash and prepare the fruit as for stewing, and fill the cans full of the raw fruit, shaking it down a little. Set them in a basin of warm water to warm the cans, then slowly FRUITS. 113 fill them with boiling waterCanning Fruits. Have the water in the steamer boiling constantly ; set the cans in and cover. Steam them from ten to fifteen minutes, less time for the small- est fruits, remove and finish as with the stewed fruit. Do not put the rubbers and covers on until you take the fruit from the steamer, and be sure they are clean, perfect and sterilized, by standing half an hour in boiling water to destroy the " germs " that will otherwise spoil the fruit. Peaches and pears should steam twenty minutes. FRUITS PRESERVED BY COLD STORAGE. Immense cold storage buildings containing the choicest meats, fowl, fish and game of all descriptions, make it possible for the flesh consumer to obtain at any season of the year all the animal delicacies his palate may demand. If entirely ** out of season," he will find it " in season " in cold storage. Warehouses are being erected and co-operative asso- ciations formed among farmers and market men for the more lengthy preservation of fruits and vegetables. Cold storage being years ago pronounced a success, there is reason to anticipate that we may have vegetables, fruits and nuts so preserved, not only in large storage houses, but the utility, economy and convenience of a " cold storage " room in every house will suggest itself to the intelligence of thrifty householders. This would obviate the necessity of so much canning, drying and pre- serving as is now done. Nuts are our natural meat and there is no reason why they may not be kept sweet and fresh by the same process and thus avoid mixing the remnants of last year's crop with the new as is often done. 114 THE FAT OF THE LAND. DRIED FRUITS. Avoid fruits treated with sulphur, salycilic acid and other deleterious substances. Mr. Henri V. Lememager of Tacoma, Wash, writes to the editor of the English Herald of Healthy that ** peaches, apricots, apples and pears will turn a healthy brown color if dried in the natural way ; but when sulphured will be paler, brighter and more attractive in the eyes of those who buy for appearances. The flavor, however, of sulphured fruit is non est. There is no flavor whatever or very little. Sulphured peaches, apples and apricots are very acid. It is anything but beneficial from a hygienic point of view, as sulphuric acid and zinc are not particularly desirable in combination, and the lack of flavor in the fruit .shows there is something wrong." Director Heilgard, of the California Station, believes that the public should be taught to prefer "healthy, brown, high flavored fruit, to the sickly-tinted, chemically- tainted product of the sulphur box."