Foods and household management

Fruit is the food material now most commonly preserved in the home kitchen. Vegetables need to be subjected to heat for a much longer time than fruit, and many people prefer to buy canned vegetables rather than to go to the trouble and expense of canning them at home. Whfere there is an oversupply of vegetables in the home garden, it is sometimes economy to can them, and this may be done if care is exercised. The cost of fuel and labor must be counted in, when studying the question of home preserving versus buying the canned product. Whatever the food material, and the process, the principles of preservation are the same for all. Why does food spoil? — The decay and moldiness of fresh fruit are matters of common observation; and the" housekeeper knows that mold is liable to cover the top of a jelly glass, and that a can of fruit will ferment at times, even to the point of bursting the can. We recognize another kind of deterioration in meat and fish that have become tainted, even when no mold is visible, and there is no opportunity for ordinary fermentation. The microscope has given us eyes to see, and as a result of the patient work of the scientist with this instrument we now know that the difficulties in keeping food are caused by the presence of minute vegetable organisms known as molds, [illustration: Mold Bacteriology] Fig. 28. — Three species of mold. yeasts, and bacteria. It is impossible in some cases to draw a sharp line between these different forms of lower life, yet we are able to distinguish them sufficiently for practical purposes. Masses of mold that can be seen with the naked eye are distinguished by a feathery appearance and bright color. Figure 28 shows three species of the green mold that affects jam and jellies. Other species are found in Roquefort and Camembert cheese, and give the flavors characteristic in these cheeses. The presence of yeast can be detected by its action, but it camiot itself be seen without the microscope. When canned fruit or homemade fruit juice "works," yeast cells are present in great number. Figure 29 shows one form of yeast, highly magnified, and Fig. 30 shows a single yeast cell.. The jeast cake is a mixture of thousands of such cells Fig. 29. — One form of yeast. with some flour or flour and meal, and the cells lie dormant in the cake, until we are ready to use them in bread. (See Chapter XII.) The actual yeast, however, is what Fig. 30 shows it to be, a tiny, one-celled plant, increasing in number by the " division of the single cell, or by the budding out of one cell from another. When conditions are favorable the yeast cells increase in number with great rapidity, and some of the sugar i '"■ ""■ " *^°°^ '''"'. that is present is broken down into c, granules, d, nucleus. (and carbon dioxidc gas Bud alcohol. It is this gas that causes the familiar bubbling when fermentation is taking place. We put yeast cells into bread and cultivate it for this gas. But how does it occur in canned fruits, when its presence is not desired? Wild yeast floats in the air, and lies upon the surface of fruit. All cultivated yeast has been derived from wild yeast. 'In . old-fashioned ways of bread-making no yeast was introduced.