The Washington times., 1930-08-19
TIMES HINTS ON CANNING FOODS
ADVICE GIVEN
ON MODERN
METHOD

During these summer months
many of you wish to can the sur
plus Of your garden food stuffs.
Before attempting such a
program it is most important that
you have a thorough knowledge
Of safe home canning methods.
With such plan in mind, all
home Gamers will be interested
In these results Of two years
study carried on at Iowa State
College to deter mine the best and
safest procedure for canning vege-
tables and meats by the hot water
bath method.
Must Be Fresh
Vegetables for canning must be
fresh. In fact the condition Of
the vegetables as they were
canned, resulting from holding
them one, two, three or five days
before canning, made a decided
difference in their keeping quail
ties. AS a rule the vegetables
canned after storage showed much
higher spoilage than those that
were canned fresh.
To determine the best method
for treating the fresh vegetables
before packing into the jars for
processing the following expert.
lnents were made: first, packing
the uncooked vegetable into the
Jars and covering with boil
ing water; second, precooking
the vegetable in boiling water
for three minutes, discarding
this water and filling into the
the vegetables in boiling water
and third, precooking the vege-
tables in boiling water and ,tsing
the same water to fill the jars.
With such vegetables as beans
and asparagus, where there was
no difficulty in securing rapid
penetration Of heat through the
vegetables in the jars, the above
various methods of treatment be-
fore packing made no difference
In the keeping qualities.
Minerals in Juices
The water in which vegetables
have been precooked prior to fill
ing into the jars contains valu-
able minerals and food nutri-
ments. These can be retained by
using this water as q part 'Or
all Of the boiling liquid for fill
ing the jars.
The tightness with which vege'
tables are packed into the jars
before processing is important.
In comparing the keeping quail
tiles in jars of Swiss chard it
was found that jars which were
tightly packed required a longer
period of heating than those
which were loosely packed. Heat
penetration is slow in green's, and
the more solid the pack the
longer it takes for the product
in the center Of the jar to reach
the processing temperature.
A small amount of citric acid
in the form of lemon juice added
to the vegetables before precook-
ing was found to reduce the time
necessary for processing. In the
case of sweet corn two teaspoon
fuls of lemon Juice were added
to each pint of corn and this
gave a slightly acid flavor. This
acid was neutralized by adding
one-fourth teaSpoonful of baking
soda to each pint Of canned
corn when it was emptied from
the jar and heated for serving.
With asparagus one and one-half
teaspoonfuls Of lemon Juice were
added to each pint. and with
Swiss chard and string beans one
teaSpoonful was used. These
amounts were not large enough
to affect the flavor. Acetic acid
(vinegar was not used in these
tests because preliminary tests
showed that it gave a more pro-
nounced flavor than the citric
acid demon juice.
Time Is Important
The time allowed for processing
the filled jars was one of the i'm
portant factors in determining
whether or not the canned prod
ucts would keep. String beans
were found to keep best If proc
esSed for two and one-haH hours
without the addition of citric acid
and one and one-half hours if the
acid was used. Swiss chard was
. best after three hours without
and two with the addition of the
acid. Asparagus took two hours
with the use of the acid and
sweet corn two and one-half, with
out acid.
The temperature at which the
canned vegetables were stored had
. pronounced effect on the keep
ing qualities. All the bacteria
present in food to be canned are
not necessarily killed during proc
essing, and those remaining are
much more apt to grow and spoil
the product If the jars are stored
In q warm place. Canned goods
should be stored in as cool a
place rs possible. preferably be-
tween As degrees F. and so de-