The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-06-16

l
acid vegetables like peas and beans
without a pressure cooker is, warn
the official bulletins, dangerous. The
danger comes from the botulism
bacillus, which can be killed off
dead in a pressure cooker for GER
tain, but which if not destroyed will
develop toxin which will kill you
off dead for certain, if you eat 1t.
yes" say the old timers in this
home canning business, but we've
been canning non-acid vegetables at
our house for years, and without a
pressure cooker and we've all lived
hale and hearty and never been bit
by one of your botulism bugs"
DANGER LIES IN NORTH
True, admit the home canning
experts. Millions of people have
eaten non-acid foods canned with
out pressure cooker, and with
out a fatality. In some areas of the
country the botulism bacillus has
never been found. Principally those
in the north, where there are year.
round cool storage facilities. Also,
the botulism bacilli can be killed by
boiling - really boiling - the food
! for Is minutes, after it has been
taken out of the can and before
serving. But in the south particu-
larly this danger of botulism poi
soning is great, and if the Depart
ment of Agriculture or any of the
State home extension services put
out any official world that non-acid
vegetables could be canned safely
without a pressure cooker, with the
result that somebody should die,
| they'd get the blame and it would
develop into national scandal.
There was terrific battle fought
in the Department of Agriculture
on this issue few months ago. The
conservatives finally won, with the
result that all official pamphlets
now say definitely that non-acid
foods must be canned in pressure
cooker to be free from botulism.
All right, you're converted, and
you go down to the hardware store
to buy one of these pressure cookers
(prices are frozen at 1885 and
1883, slightly higher west Of the
Rockies) and your troubles begin
Mostly the stores haven't got any
/ pressure cookers, or if they do have
any, you gotta have permit to buy
Okay, where do you get the permit?
From your County War Board. You
| go there and make application. The
board will probably ask you to see
if you can't borrow one from a
enighbor. If you can, do 1t to save
time.
But If there isn't one cooker in
your community and you can prove
that you and your neighbors have
enough vegetables to put up to war;
rant the sale of a pressure cooker
to you or your club, you'll get let
ter saying you're authorized to buy
one.
MORE COOKERS TO COME
Before the war, there were over a
million good aluminium and steel
cookers made and most of them will
probably be working overtime. Man
ufacture of new cookers was STOP
ped more than six months ago to
save critical materials, but with the
demand from the Victory gardeners,
production has been started again.
In many cases, the deliveries will
be too late for use in canning this
years early vegetables, the stuff
now ripening on the vine and bush.
But cookers will be available for
late vegetables and meat, in case
you're going to home butcher and
can that pet pig or the bull calf.
It's another case of getting going
just little too late and with too
little. But the Department of Agri-
culture says if you can't borrow or
buy a pressure cooker for your
beans and peas there are other
things you can do to save your crops
besides eating them fresh. You can
dry them, or brine them or freeze
them-if you know how or if you
have freezer or dryer.