The Fredericksburg home kitchen cook book

What is canning? Canning is the art of preserving food by means of sterilization by heat, and keeping it sterile in an air-tight, sealed container. The most troublesome foes to combat in canning, are the bacteria. Never use commercial preservatives or canning powders, as they are dangerous. Use heat. Do your canning by the "Cold Pack Method", because in this way the bacteria have no chance. Save all of your fruits and vegetables you raise, and store them in the cellar, as canned goods. This does the cooking for the whole year in a few days, and that's one time you can get the old man to help you cook if you get him to help you can. Last but not least, "Can while you can, so you can have a can, when there is nothing to can. ALFRED NEFFENDORF. Chili Sauce. 6 doz. tomatoes; 12 cups vinegar; 2 dozen onions; 24 tablespoons sugar; 12 teaspoons ginger; 12 teaspoons cloves; 12 teaspoons cinnamon; 12 teaspoons salt. Red pepper to suit taste. Boil 4 or 5 hours, or down to about half of original quantity. MRS. AD. WEHMEYER. — 156 — Chili Sauce. 12 large ripe tomatoes; 2 cupfuls sugar; 1 large onion; 1 tablespoonful salt; 4 red peppers; 1 tablespoonful vinegar; 1 tablespoonful each of ground allspice and cloves. Chop fine the tomatoes, onions and peppers. Add the other ingredients and boil until quite thick. MRS. HUGO BASSE. Pepper Hash. Remove the seeds and chop very fine 12 sweet red peppers, and 12 green peppers and 12 very small onions. Add 3 tablespoonfuls of salt and allow the mixture to simmer for 10 minutes. Then drain, and add 1 quart of diluted vinegar and 1 cupful of sugar. Add a little mustard and celery seed, if liked. Let the hash come to a boil, then pour it into jars and seal while hot. MRS. HERMANN HOHENBERGER. MRS. DINA PRIESS. Cucumber Pickles. Take one gallon of diluted vinegar, and one cup each of dry mustard and salt, or if sweet pickles are wanted add one or two cups of sugar. Pick your cucumbers in the morning, wash them thoroughly and drain, then drop them into the vinegar. MRS. A. H. KNEESE. Ripe Cucumbers. Peel cucumbers, and cut into eight parts, hollow out seeds and pulps with a silver spoon. To a bucket of cucumbers use 1 cup salt. Salt pieces well and allow them to stand 24 hours. Wipe dry with clean cloth. - 157 — Cook vinegar thinned with water to taste; to 1 quart vinegar use 1 tabiespoonful of sugar, 2 bay leaves and a handful of mustard seed. Pack in fruit jars, pour boiling vinegar over all and seal tight. ROSA DECHERT. Salt Cucumber Pickles. Wash cucumbers with a brush, put into cold water over night. Drain them the next morning and pack closely into jar, one layer cucumbers, then a layer grape leaves and grapes, and so on till jar is filled. To two quarts of water add one cup of salt, fill the jar with the salt and water, cover up, with a light weight on top to keep pickles under water. MRS. JACOB GOLD, SR. Chow Chow. Beans, cabbage, tomatoes, onions. To every gallon of cut vegetables add: 1 tablespoonful of salt; 1 tabiespoonful of pepper; iy2 tablespoonfuls of mustard; 2 tablespoonfuls of molasses; y% teaspoonful of cloves; 1 quart of vinegar. Boil half an hour. MRS. JUL. KLINGELHOEFER. Cucumber Pickles. Take green cucumbers, about 4 or 5 inches long, soak 48 hours in strong brine, then pour off the brine and rinse with cold water.