CANNING THE GARDEN SURPLUS FOR
WINTER USE
The fullest measure of benefit from the garden has not been obtained unless one has preserved for future use the more succulent forms of vegetables that are not susceptible to preservation through winter in the usual form of cold storage.
Those early vegetables which are so keen an incentive to the planting of a garden—young beets, spinach greens, string beans, limas, peas, tomatoes and the like must be preserved in a cooked form, hermetically sealed from the air to preserve them from spoiling. This the commercial canners have done for years and we have been content to let them do this work for us at a price that has added materially to the high cost of living, while our own garden product, often of a far better quality, has gone to waste. Market gardeners233 who supply the canneries grow vegetables with a keen eye to their productiveness. If one vegetable will produce a half or a third more to an acre than another variety somewhat better, it is only human to grow that one, but the private garden is not, as a rule, grown with a sole idea of profit; it is quality and the enjoyment of the product that is looked for and only those vegetables that will produce a high grade product will be grown.
The home canning of vegetables has been neglected owing to the uncertainty of results. Occasionally one found a housekeeper who could can corn successfully, but the results usually were unsatisfactory, all this, however, is changed since the government experts of the Agricultural Department have, by careful experiments along the lines of all sorts of vegetable products, worked out canning schedules that only require careful following to insure success.
The government bulletins give explicit instructions as to necessary equipment, method of handling each separate vegetable and try, in all234 possible ways, to insure success for the worker.
At first glance the amount of equipment seems burdensome and some of the requirements unnecessary, but I have found that it is not safe to slight any one of them, but that there are short cuts in the work that materially lessen the labor. It will not always be convenient to supply oneself with a canning outfit involving much expense; especially will this be the case in the small family where only a moderate amount of canning is to be done, though the regular canning outfits greatly simplify and ease up the work. A home-made outfit will, however, take care of all the surplus from the small home garden, especially where there are but two or three cans to be handled at one time. There are always vegetables that mature their fruits sparingly—too many for immediate use, but not enough to sell. However, in order that the vines or plants should continue to bear heavily, all such products as string and lima beans, tomatoes, green corn and the like should be gathered as each reaches its most perfect stage. This often involves some waste unless it can be235 utilized in some way and here is where the canning is effective, as the continual canning of only one or two cans at a time results in the course of a summer in a well-filled cupboard that will insure one against any serious food shortage that may arise during the winter.
There are five types of canning outfits: Homemade outfits, constructed of such utensils as wash boilers, tin pails, milk cans, metal wash tubs and lard pails. The lard pails are especially usable and cream pails are excellent where only a few cans are to be processed at once; even a teakettle can be made to do duty where only one or two pint cans are to be cooked. Any metal vessel that will allow the water to come at least an inch above the tops of the cans will do.
Hot-Water-Bath Commercial Outfits are constructed usually for outdoor work, with a sterilizing vat, lifting-trays, firebox, and smokepipe, combined in one piece. They are light and convenient. They may be moved about as desired, even carried to the orchard or garden where apples and corn are to be canned in quantity, but236 are more adapted to clubs and neighborhood cooperative work than to the needs of a small family.
Water-Seal Outfits consist of a double-walled bath and cover which projects down into the water between the outer and inner walls, thus making three metal walls and two water-jackets between the sterilizing vat and the outside of the canner. A high temperature can be maintained more uniformly than with the hot-water-bath outfit, since the escape of steam is prevented and a slight steam pressure is maintained.
Steam-Pressure Outfits are made to carry from five to thirty pounds' pressure and are equipped with steam-tight sterilizer, lifting crate, thermometer, or pressure gauge, safety valve and steam petcock; they are, of course, the most perfect equipment and economical of labor and fuel.
Aluminum Pressure Cookers are combination outfits for cooking and canning and have the advantage of being useful all the year around. They are light in construction, economical of heat and will carry as high as thirty pounds steam237 pressure; they are equipped the same as steam-pressure outfits.
The purpose of this chapter, however, is not to go into the methods necessary for caring for large quantities of vegetables at one time nor the expenditure of any considerable sum in effecting the conservation of garden food; rather it is intended to help the housewife to save, cheaply and easily, her garden surplus as it accumulates day by day. Fuller details than are in the scope of this chapter can be gained through the canning and food preservation bulletins sent out by the Department of Agriculture at Washington and by the various states.
The same general principles pertain to all fruits and vegetables to be canned, only the time of processing varying in individual cases.
The vegetables to be canned should always be perfect of their kind and absolutely fresh; indeed, it is better to have everything ready for canning before they are gathered, then dress, sterilize and blanch and get into the cans as rapidly as possible. The Cold Pack Process calls for, first, the sterilizing238 of the product by plunging for five or six minutes in boiling water. This is best accomplished by either a wire basket, lined with cheese-cloth, if the vegetable is small, like peas or string beans, or alone for such things as tomatoes, peppers or corn on cob, or by a large piece of cheese-cloth a yard square at least. After blanching the vegetables must be plunged at once in cold water, to set the color and firm the surface. They are then packed at once in the cans, a teaspoon of salt added to each quart and the can filled with boiling water, rubber and top put in place, but not screwed tight, and the cans placed in the container, the water of which must come at least an inch above the top of the cans, and cooked, or processed, for the time indicated for each product. Before using the cans they should be sterilized by boiling, or at least thoroughly heating to obviate danger of cracking when plunged into the hot container.
The government directions state quite emphatically that the cans should be boiled but after putting up several hundred cans of vegetables of239 all sorts, without this precaution, all of which kept perfectly, I have come to the conclusion that it cuts out a lot of unnecessary time and equipment, for the necessity of having one large container to sterilize cans, another to sterilize the vegetables, a kettle of boiling water to fill up the cans, and the container for processing, entails a large amount of working space and an unnecessary amount of fuel. If any short cuts can be achieved it is certainly that much to the good, so I have been able to shorten the work so that much of my own canning has been done on a one-burner oil stove with one vessel of boiling water for processing, blanching, sterilizing jars, etc., and one pail of cold water for blanching and a good, big table for handling the vegetables. In handling the work I have everything ready before gathering the vegetables. For a few pint or quart cans I use a cream-pail which will hold four pints or three quarts. In this I have boiling plenty of water. I place the cans in a pan adding a little hot water, turning them carefully until warm through and then fill up and cover. Put240 the vegetables in the wire basket or cheese-cloth, dip them in the boiling water the specified time, plunge into cold water for an instant, take out cans, one at a time, being careful not to touch the tops with the hands, place rubbers, first dipped in the hot water, fill cans with vegetables, with a teaspoon of salt for the quart size, half a teaspoonful for pints, fill with the boiling water from the container, place caps—which have also been sterilized—on, screw down, but not tight and place in container, being sure that there is abundance of water, for the long cooking lowers the water materially and unless there is another kettle of boiling water available for filling up the water may go below the top of the can and the result will be blown out rubbers which will have to be replaced. This is one of the serious handicaps of canning by the cold-pack method. The remedy, however, is simple. Remove the can, remove the cap and put a fresh rubber in place, replace the cap and plunge again in the container and boil for five minutes longer. The changing of the rubber should be done as quickly as possible and241 care should be taken to avoid touching the edge of the top of the can or the inside of the cap while doing so. If there is any delay in replacing the rubber it will be better to boil ten instead of five minutes.
When the canning is done on the kitchen range or on a three-burner gas or oil stove it will be better to fill the cans with water from the teakettle and to sterilize the cans in a dishpan, allowing them to heat on the stove until required, but excellent results will follow the shorter method. Pint cans are most desirable for such vegetables as string beans, peas, lima beans and the like—things which are used alone and not combined with other foods as tomatoes and corn. Pint cans, however, have about disappeared from the market and even quarts have been at a premium. And one should take unusual care in cleansing cans and tops as soon as emptied, and placing them in a dry place until wanted for another year's canning. A cellar is not a suitable place to store cans, it is far too damp and conducive to mould. If cans are properly cleansed and242 dried and the tops adjusted and stored in a dry upstairs closet they will need far less sterilizing when required for use.
Often in canning vegetables it will be found that there is an uneven quantity—that is, there will be a quantity of one kind left after filling the cans, but not enough for another full can; if desired this can be put in a can and cooked with the rest for the family dinner, or it may be put away with the canned goods, for I have found the partially filled cans keep quite as well as the full ones and there are often times when the lesser quantity will be all that is needed for the meal, or it may be just enough for a salad or to combine with some other vegetable in a soup or entrée.
In placing the cans in the container there must always be a rack of some sort to keep the cans from direct contact with the bottom of the vessel. This should, if possible, be in the form of a wire rack. The wire trivets to set hot dishes on, which may be obtained at the ten cent counter of any department store, are excellent for use in cream cans; they just fill the bottom and as243 they rest on little half-inch feet they allow the water to circulate freely beneath the cans, which is very important and failure to provide for which is sometimes a cause of blown out rubbers. For canning with large cans—quarts and two quarts—the twenty-five pound lard-cans are excellent. They are tall enough to insure plenty of water over the top of the cans and will accommodate four or five two quart and five or six one quart cans and seven pints, though some recommend placing two tiers of pints in the container, but I have always thought that rather risky. The lard-cans are very light to handle and the lids fit closely, retaining the steam. Whenever there is an imperfect closing of the lid it will be well to place a towel o............