Farm and home cook book and housekeeper's assistant

Many housekeepers make little ceremony canning berries of any kind. The main thing is to use only good, ripe berries. Pick as they ripen, put into jars and pour over them boiling hot syrup made of sugar and water. Have the glass overflowing full, seal while hot, and then set the jars in a pail or boiler of boiling water which more than covers the jars. Cover the pail closely and throw a cloth or quilt over it, and let stand until cold. Be sure that the tops are screwed on the jars as tight as possible. — [Miss F. L. R., Ct. Canning and Preserving URING the spring, summer and early fall months, the good housekeeper on the farm finds her hands full, for in each of those seasons Mother Nature provides something in the line of fruit or vegetable which needs to be canned or preserved for use during the bleak and barren months of winter, beginning with the earliest berries and garden truck and winding up with the late pears, peaches, plums, etc., in the fall months. To do one's own canning and preserving means much warm work during the warm seasons, but it also means many dollars saved and a wholesome and bounteous table supply for the greater part of the year. Therefore, every good housekeeper is interested in canning and preserving recipes, and it is hoped that among the following she will find many that will please her and perhaps point the way to new methods or combinations. Methods of Canning There are two canning methods most generally used, the first being to boil the fruit in a syrup and then filling into the jars and sealing while hot. The second method is a little more troublesome, but thought by many cooks to be the best. The glass cans are filled with the fruit and sugar or juice, raw or partly cooked, the covers adjusted loosely, and the cans then set in a boiler of water and boiled for a prescribed time. Hay or pieces of wood are first placed in the bottom of the boiler, and hay or cloths packed between the jars, so they will not crack, and the water is allowed to come almost but not quite up to the tops of the jars. The boiler is closely covered during the boiling process, to retain the steam. When they have boiled or steamed long enough the jars are removed from the boiler, each one filled full with juice or syrup, the rubbers adjusted, and the covers screwed down as tight as possible. About the Jars for Canning \ Of course, the jars must be perfectly clean, the covers ■ ditto, and fit exactly, and the rubbers new and of good quality. Sometimes, though very seldom, two old rubbers that seem | good can be used in place of one new one, but it is always I more or less of a risk to try this. Jars, covers and rubbers ■ about which there is the least bit of doubt had better be ' kept for very sweet or spiced preserves, catsups or hot rel- j ishes, that do not spoil easily. The wise housekeeper, as soon as she empties a glass jar of its contents, immediately washes and dries the jar, cover and rubber band, and puts ■ the jar away in a dust-proof place with the rubber band and \ a small lump of charcoal inside and the cover screwed on ; loosely. This saves time and trouble for the next canning season, when the task of fitting cans and covers is especially ;