Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1886-02-17
Keeping Fruit.

The best fru1t preserves are made by
boiling down thejuice without any adj
dition until it thickens. The natural
gum and sugar present in most fruits
only needs concentration to form eth
er syrup or jelly, but the practice mas
been so long to use sugar for more
rapid process at the expense of flavor,
that the earlier and better method is
all but forgotten. In fruit, especially,
from planting to preserving time, we
large scale. Hundred acre orchards
are pronounced a loss by owners, and
in good seasons the fruit that would
feed q country goes to decay under the
boughs. 1t is hard to carefor so many
trees and keep them in healthy condi-
ton. Fruit-growing is q business for
small farmers or householders where
the attention Of the family can be
given to the few acres of choice fruit.
Keeping fruit, or any provision, de-
ponds on three things: 1t must be
sound at the commencement. A speck
of decay or acid change will develop
ferment in a kettle of fruit. Second,
the jars or cans must be air-tight-
The object of steaming the fruit is to
expel the air and arrest the change in
the Juice which would naturally pro-
coed to ferment. Air penetrates in
finer ways than we can discern and
needs much less than the crevice of
hair or q pins point to enter and spoil
the contents.
Glass that is free from cracks or air
bubbles, well-glazed stone ware, free
dark earthen jars will keep the fruit
from the air, provided it is sealed with
wax, putty or bladder soaked and left
to shrink on the mouth of the jars
Cans with screw tops and rubber rings
are apt to have slight defects which
prevent perfect sealing, and cannot be
depended on without wax.
Third, the jars must be kept in
dry, dark, cold place, very little above
freezing. A shelf in a furnace. warmed
cellar or store-room opening from a
kitchen is not the place to preserve
fruit. 1t may be put up in the best
manner and yet spoil through keeping
in the light and where it is not cool.
Glass cans should be wrapped in paper,
buried in sand or sawdust, or kept in
a dark closet. Packed with plenty of
chaff, oats, dry sand or sawdust, or
dry, sifted ashes, most preserves will
stand freezing weather without injury,
but each can needs at least six inches
of non-conducting material about it
on ali sides for protection. A pit on
one side of the cellar, dug below the
reach of frost and lined with boards,
with straw or ashes between them and
it's walls, will keep preserves from heat
ing or freezing. A pit dug in cellar
four feet below the level of it's floor,
we'll drained and lined as above, will
prove the best place for keeping small
quantities of preserves, enough for a
single family.
Jellies need dry place for keeping,
and are not SO particular about tenn
perature, though it is best to keep
them cool. Jams, jellies and MARINA
lade, put up in wooden boxes and fir
kins, stand changes better than those
in glass Or stone. IL wooden ware is
properly soaked in scalding weak I've
over night, rinsed and dried out of
doors, then oiled inside with clean cot
ton-seed oil or melted suet, it is ex-
cellent for keeping preserves. The oil
prevents the juice from soaking into
the wood or drawing out it's sap, which
might make the contents taste un-
pleasantly. A thin coating of oil or
fat is sufficient.
Sound fruit, alright cans or jars,
cool, dry, dark storing, only will keep
well. Whether much or little sugar is
used, or fruit cooked or not, is little
matter if these points are Observed
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