One of the most satisfactory operations which is carried on in the household is the annual putting up of fruit. To be sure, it has its disadvantages, like everything else. The fruit generally gets ripe a week or two earlier than you expect it will, and is brought to you on a day for which you have planned other work ; but, after all, there is to the well-regulated mind a rare pleasure in being confronted with a basket of luscious fruit which may be preserved for enjoyment in the winter ; and I maintain that the pleasure we receive in midwinter from a dish of peaches, cherries, or plums on the table is not wholly of the senses, but the mind itself enjoys the contrasting picture which inevitably comes before it. Something of the brightness of the long FRUIT. 65 summer days in which it grew and ripened is felt again, and just as chopped pickle in June will suggest a Novem- ber day when the tomatoes no longer ripen, the cucumbers have gone to seed, and the frost has covered the tangled vines in the garden with a fairy-like network, so red rasp- berries and pears in December and March minister to other wants than those of the palate. Half the trouble of put- ting up fruit — ^the broken cans, the scalded fingers, and stained dresses — might be done away with if a woman could enter upon the work in the right spirit. If, instead of complaining in May because the trees are full of blossoms, and exhausting ourselves mentally by putting up the fruit and having it spoil long before it is ripe, we were to re- frain from asking if we shall live to eat it or see it eaten, we should accomplish something really great in preserving our peace of mind as well as our fruit. It is a simple matter also, if entered into with calm cheerfulness, to look over and can the fruit. After the fruit has been care- fully examined, set it in a cool room or into the refrig- erator, while you examine your cans. It is well to have some new rubber rings on hand, as you may need them ; have also a cup of flour paste ready ; then, if the zinc rings or covers are bent a little, you may still make them air-tight with the paste. If you are at all doubtful about the condi- tion of your cans, use the paste. In a long experience of putting up fruit I have never broken but one can, and that was on account of carelessness in rinsing in too hot water. I rinse the can in warm water, then set it in a two-quart basin with a little water in it, set it on the stove beside my por- celain kettle, fill the can with the boiling fruit, and seal up as quickly as may be. One thing which should be carefully avoided is too much boiling of the fruit after the sugar is put with it. The injury which boiling does is not by any means well understood by many good cooks. Last year I gave up all the care of putting up fruit and pickles to a 66 HOUSEHOLD HINTS. competent and honest girl ; but, by her not knowing that sugar^ when boiled^ actually changes its nature, and loses much of its sweetness, she used more than twice the quan- tity which I have used this year, and the fruit then was not so sweet as it ought to be. (When making sirup to eat on hot cakes, bear this in mind : after the sugar is dissolved, let it come to a boil, but do not boil it.)

AI-modernized reading of the original text

One of the most satisfactory operations which is carried on in the household is the annual putting up of fruit. To be sure, it has its disadvantages, like everything else. The fruit generally gets ripe a week or two earlier than you expect it will, and is brought to you on a day for which you have planned other work ; but, after all, there is to the well-regulated mind a rare pleasure in being confronted with a basket of luscious fruit which may be preserved for enjoyment in the winter ; and I maintain that the pleasure we receive in midwinter from a dish of peaches, cherries, or plums on the table is not wholly of the senses, but the mind itself enjoys the contrasting picture which inevitably comes before it. Something of the brightness of the long FRUIT. 65 summer days in which it grew and ripened is felt again, and just as chopped pickle in June will suggest a November day when the tomatoes no longer ripen, the cucumbers have gone to seed, and the frost has covered the tangled vines in the garden with a fairy-like network, so red raspberries and pears in December and March minister to other wants than those of the palate. Half the trouble of putting up fruit — the broken cans, the scalded fingers, and stained dresses — might be done away with if a woman could enter upon the work in the right spirit. If, instead of complaining in May because the trees are full of blossoms, and exhausting ourselves mentally by putting up the fruit and having it spoil long before it is ripe, we were to refrain from asking if we shall live to eat it or see it eaten, we should accomplish something really great in preserving our peace of mind as well as our fruit. It is a simple matter also, if entered into with calm cheerfulness, to look over and can the fruit. After the fruit has been carefully examined, set it in a cool room or into the refrigerator, while you examine your cans. It is well to have some new rubber rings on hand, as you may need them ; have also a cup of flour paste ready ; then, if the zinc rings or covers are bent a little, you may still make them air-tight with the paste. If you are at all doubtful about the condition of your cans, use the paste. In a long experience of putting up fruit I have never broken but one can, and that was on account of carelessness in rinsing in too hot water. I rinse the can in warm water, then set it in a two-quart basin with a little water in it, set it on the stove beside my porcelain kettle, fill the can with the boiling fruit, and seal up as quickly as may be. One thing which should be carefully avoided is too much boiling of the fruit after the sugar is put with it. The injury which boiling does is not by any means well understood by many good cooks. Last year I gave up all the care of putting up fruit and pickles to a competent and honest girl ; but, by her not knowing that sugar when boiled actually changes its nature, and loses much of its sweetness, she used more than twice the quantity which I have used this year, and the fruit then was not so sweet as it ought to be. (When making sirup to eat on hot cakes, bear this in mind : after the sugar is dissolved, let it come to a boil, but do not boil it.)

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