The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1915-10-26


obtained with can-opener between
! milk warm from the dairy and the
, syrupy concentrate from the factory,
! between the sweet peas shelled crisp
! from the pod and peas packed in Wis
consin or Indiana and opened months
later a thousand miles away. the
! fresh-gathered product is, of course,
/ the better. No fruit is ever so good
as when picked in ones own garden,
and no milk is ever so sweet or so
rich as when freshly drawn; but we
cannot all have gardens, and even
when we do have them, the crop Is
| soon gathered. Nor is milk fresh
! from its fount possible to more than
/ a limited and fortunate few. or
/ course, the epicure. who values his
appetite more than his money, can
J get his hothouse-grown fruits and
vegetables and prolong the season for
fresh foods by depending on supplies
gathered in many zones and held in
refrigeration to serve his needs. But
/ the tin-can kitchen must satisfy our
desire for early June peas at least
| eleven months in the year. The pan
| try shelves stacked with canned
beans. corn, tomatoes, peas. fruits and
vegetables of every description offer
no mean substitute for fresh products.
Indeed. in many cases the goods from
the can are more juicy and palatable
than the stale and wilted, half-ripe,
so-called fresh products.
The art of canning is but little
more than hundred years old dat
ing back to the discoveries of Mich
olas Appert. who found that he could
put all kinds of food in little glass or
tin storehouses and hold it there in
definitely and who first tested the
value of his process by serving green
peas and beans. gathered more than
year earlier, to the admiral and Off
cers of a French frigate, and so won
their approval that the invention was
brought to the attention of the French
government and by 1t given it's first
official recognition. In these hundred
years. and especially in the last ten
years the canning industry has made
astonishing strides. No food is now
so rare or unusual that it is not pre-
served for future consumption in tin
cans.
No fresh fruit or vegetable. fish.
mollusk or meat is too good to be put
awav in a tin storehouse. and the
alert and progressive came Is max
ing bewildering variety of special
products. Every soup known to the
French chef is made at the factory. in
ideal kitchens, OF the finest mater
ials, by the most skillful cooks money
can obtain. Indeed. some canned
foods are made by chefs whose year
~ salaries would seem a fortune to
most professional men, and the pro-
ducts Of their kitchens and skill may
always be ready on your pantry
h.
well-chosen dinner.
Every year adds some new and de-
sirable staple to the long list OF can
ned foods. A few years ago canned
spaghetti was unheard of. today It is
"best. seller and tomorrow a dozen
new products. equally good. cheap. MI.
tritious and always ready. will wait
your order at the corner grocery.
The once common belief that can
ned goods contained preservatives and
other gross adulterants has been
shown to be false. and the reports of
chemists. who in every state and many
cities check food frauds. show that no
foods on the pantry shelves are less
liable to adulteratfon than those in
the tin rackage.
Canned foods are not preserved by
chemicals. because they are made ster-
IL by heat, the safest. cheapest and
altogether the hest way Of saving
food in good condition until the time
it may be needed.
In the tin package there is no de-
terioration and no waste. Wheat in
the elevator or granary may become
damp and moldy, and it is always sub
ject to attack by rats and insects.
Food in cold storage has a definite
life limit, but food in the can stays
good so long as the tin package lasts.
Gamers are modern Josephs, storing
up a surplus in ideal warehouses
against times Of scarcity. and when
the brethren descend on the unpre-
pared housewife there are always tin
ned foods on hand to avert the fam
inc and load the heightened table.
The process of canning at the fac
tory, with it's output OF millions OF
cans yearly, is little different from
that followed in the kitchen. Some
OF the choicest and most successful
factories work in small units in exact.
" the way the housewife puts up"
her peaches and berries; but the can
ner has a great advantage over the
housewife in that he has larger sup
plies to select from. better formulas
to follow and more perfect processes
for sterilization; so while the house
wife counts her summer labor success
full II she does not lose more than one
can in six the Gamer is able to keep
his loss from spoilage to less than
one can in hundred The housewife
Is proud Of her rows upon rows OF
glass Jars and neatly labeled tin cans
stacked on the pantry shelves, and to
her and her family no doubt the home
made jellies and preserves have
finer flavor than do the goods from
the grocery stock. The dtnerence.
however, Is largely that due to the
natural pride of the creator, and not
TO any inherent superiority, for II 1t
were possible to Judge the average
homemade article with the output or
the Gamer. the Gamer would not sur
fer in com parison and indeed his
goods would he found to be more uni