Every Step in Canning | Page 8

light. Black cambric tacked to the top shelf
and suspended over the other shelves is a sufficient protection from
light. A discarded window shade can be rolled down over the shelves
and easily pulled up when you desire to take a jar from the shelves.
Canned goods are best kept at a temperature below seventy degrees
Fahrenheit, where that is at all possible.
STEPS IN CANNING SOFT FRUITS AND BERRIES
It might be well to enumerate the steps in berry and soft-fruit canning,

or do what we called in our schooldays "review it":
0. Get the canner and all its accessories ready.
0. Test and wash jars and tops and put in water to sterilize.
0. Test rubber rings.
0. Make sirup and put in double boiler to keep hot
0. Prepare the product--hull, seed, stem.
0. Place berries or fruit in strainer or colander.
0. Rinse by pouring cold water over product.
0. Pack from strainer into hot jar.
0. Use big spoon to get a firm pack.
0. Dip rubber in hot water to cleanse it and put it in place on the jar.
0. Pour the hot sirup over the fruit at once.
0. Put top of jar on, but not tight.
0. Ready for canner.
0. Sterilize for the necessary length of time, according to the outfit you
are using:
MINUTES
Hot-water-bath outfit 16
Condensed-steam outfit 16
Water-seal outfit 12
Steam pressure, 5 pounds, outfit 10
Pressure cooker, 10 pounds,
outfit 5
15. Remove from canner.
16. Tighten cover, except vacuum-seal jar, which seals automatically.
17. Test joint.
18. Three or four days later, if perfectly air-tight, label and store in a
dark place.
These steps are followed for strawberries, blackberries, blueberries,
dewberries, huckleberries, gooseberries, raspberries, and for all soft
fruits, such as cherries, currants, grapes and figs.

The other soft fruits, such as peaches and apricots, which have a skin,
are scalded or "hot dipped" for one to two minutes in boiling water or
steam and are then plunged into cold water. These two steps of
hot-dipping and cold dipping make the removal of skins a very simple
operation. After the skins are removed the fruit is put into the hot jars
and the process continued from Step 8, as with strawberries.
SIRUPS
Of course you are wondering about the sirups for the different fruits.
There is no set rule for making sirup. It is not necessary to use sirup in
canning fruits. The amount of sugar used in the sirup will depend upon
the individual taste. In a first-class product there should be enough
sirup to improve its flavor, but not enough to make it take the place in
the diet of a sweet preserve rather than a fresh fruit.
The sirups are made either with varying proportions of sugar and water
or with the same proportions boiled different lengths of time. What is
known as the California sirup is made with three parts of sugar to two
parts of water, boiled gently to different concentrations.
Thin Sirup. For a thin sirup take three cups of sugar and two cups of
water. Mix sugar and heat until the sugar is dissolved. This is used for
all sweet fruits not too delicate in texture and color, as apples, cherries,
pears, or for fruits in which more sugar will be added in preparation for
the table.
Medium Thin Sirup. The sugar and water should be boiled about four
minutes, or until it begins to be sirupy. This is used for
raspberries,
peaches, blackberries, currants, etc.
Medium Thick Sirup. Boil the sugar and water until it will pile up over
the edge of the spoon when it is tipped. This is used for sour or acid
fruits, as plums, gooseberries, apricots, sour apples, and some of the
delicately colored fruits, as strawberries.
Thick Sirup. The sugar and water are boiled until it will form a ball in
the spoon and cannot be poured from the spoon. This is used for

preserves.
It is possible to get more, sometimes almost twice as much, sirup into a
quart jar containing large fruits, as apples and pears, than into a quart
jar containing small fruits, as currants or blackberries.
There is a little knack worth knowing about combining the sugar and
water for the sirup. If the sugar is sifted into the boiling water just as
fine-grained cereals are sifted into water, there will be no scum formed.
This is a saving of sugar.
If you wish to