Every Step in Canning | Page 4

probably responsible for more
spoiled canned goods than any other cause. Good tops and good
rubbers are requisites for good canning.
For your canner, or sterilizer, you may use a wash boiler or a
galvanized bucket, such as is used for a garbage pail--a new one, of
course. Either is excellent where the family is small and the canning is
accordingly light. Some use the reservoir of the cookstove while others
employ a large vat. If you should have to buy the wash boiler or pail
see that it has a tight-fitting cover and be sure the pail does not leak.
Then all you have to do is to secure what we call a false bottom,
something that will keep the jars of fruit from touching the direct
bottom of the boiler or pail. This false bottom, remember, is absolutely
necessary, for without it the jars will break during the boiling.
For this false bottom use a wire netting of half-inch mesh and cut it to
fit the bottom of the sterilizer, whether boiler, pail or bucket. If you
haven't any netting and do not care to purchase it a wooden bottom can
be made to fit the sterilizer, or if that is not available put thin pieces of
wood in the bottom--anything to keep the jars from coming in direct
contact with the bottom of the sterilizer.
If you have only a small quantity of berries or fruit to can use a deep
saucepan with a tight-fitting cover and a few slats of wood. This rack is
absolutely necessary to keep the contents of the jars from becoming
overheated. Even if they should not break there is a tendency for part of
the contents to escape under the cover and be lost. Do not use hay, old
clothes, newspapers or excelsior for a false bottom; they are
unsatisfactory because they do not allow proper circulation of water.
Individual jar holders are very convenient and are preferred by many
women to the racks. Inexpensive racks with handles are on the market
and are worth what they cost in saved nerves and unburned fingers.
Some hold eight jars, others hold twelve. So it just lies with you,
individual housekeeper, whether you want a rack that will hold all your
jars or a set of individual holders that handles them separately.
To return to the subject of the canner, let me add that no matter what

kind you use, it must be at least three inches deeper than the tallest jar.
This will give room for the rack and an extra inch or two so that the
water will not boil over.
Besides the canners, the jars, the rubber rings and the rack you will
need one kettle for boiling water, into which the product may be put for
scalding or blanching; another kettle for water--if you haven't running
water--for the "cold dip."
If you use a homemade rack without handles you should have a jar
lifter of some kind for placing in and removing jars from the canner. If
individual holders are used this is not necessary, as they contain an
upright bail. Some women use a wire potato masher for lifting the jars
out of the canners. Other kitchen equipment, such as scales, knives,
spoons, wire basket or a piece of cheesecloth or muslin for blanching or
scalding the product, and the kitchen clock play their part in canning.
No canning powder or any preservative is needed. If the product is
cooked in closed jars in the hot-water bath as directed the food will be
sterilized so that it will keep indefinitely. If it is desired to add salt,
sugar, sirup, vinegar or other flavor this may be done when the product
is packed in the jar.
A great many people have been led to believe through advertising
matter that it is both safe and practical to use canning compounds for
the preserving of vegetables which have proved hard to keep under the
commonly known methods of canning. The first argument against the
use of a canning compound is that it is unnecessary. It is possible to
sterilize any fruit or vegetable which grows on tree, vine, shrub or in
the ground by this cold-pack, single-period method of canning, without
the use of a compound. The second argument against it is that many of
the canning compounds are positively harmful to health. Some of them
contain as high as ninety-five per cent of boric acid. Directors of county
and state fairs should exclude from entry all fruits and vegetables that
have been preserved in any canning compound. Perfect fruit can be
produced without any chemical preservative. The third argument is that
they are expensive.

There are many modifications of the original wash boiler and garbage
pail cookers. These are all known as