SUMMER MEETING, 18S0. 63 



THE PRACTICE OF CANNING FRUIT AND MAKING JELLY. 



With the era of canning fruit there came to the housewife a great luxury, and 

 much hard, hot work, also a good deal of anxiety. 



I well remember the many questions asked as to its feasibility: "Is it pos- 

 sible?" " Fruit as good as fresh all winter?" "How do you do it?" "I 

 want to know," when some kindly soul on blessings bent would regale to 

 her friends of the tea party where she had eaten it, how it looked, and how it 

 tasted, and the manner of preparing it. Each tea partian went horn) full of 

 the project. "John should buy her a can (you see they went carefully, for 

 it was quite a new thing), and she would try and see if they could not have 

 fresh fruit this winter. The said can was purchased, and another with it, the 

 man being more provident than his wife. In the putting up process one can 

 was broken, and in the course of a week there was a fizzing and bubbling: of 

 the other as fermentation began, and the housewife declared "she had no 

 faith in the canning fruit business, for she had tried it and it was all a hoax." 

 Another neighbor tried and succeeded ; and did you ever know one woman to 

 be outdone by another? Number one tried again and succeeded, and to-day 

 her shelves are filled with all manner of fruits, after its kind. 



It has taken several years to bring the canning fruit process to where it is 

 to-day. And shall I tell you why? So few of us housekeepers understand the 

 simple science of our own work. Cans would break, fruit would mould and 

 ferment, some would be flat and insipid, and some like Hamlet's offense, rank, 

 and smelt to heaven. But now quite a degree of success has been achieved. 

 Whether it is destined to meet with greater success in the future, time will 

 tell, or whether these improved patent dryers will eventually supercede it or 

 not, I do not know. 



Fruit that is gathered forcanuing purposes is frequently picked before it is 

 matured. I think fruit should be fully ripe before it is canned, excepting 

 peaches and pears, and these should be just as ripe as will bear baud ling. 

 Berries of all kinds should be fully ripe, not over ripe — passed into the first 

 stages of decay. They should be picked just as early in the day as the dew 

 will allow; first, for comfort in picking; second, for success in canning. 



As to the cooking, various are the ways that have been devised for this. One 

 way that I have found very successful, is to put the fruit in shallow pans on 

 the top of the stove, and only put enough in each pan that the fruit may not 

 crush. 



Another way that I frequently try with berries, is to fill my cans full of 

 fruit and sugar, and cook in the cans in kettles of hot water. This is a very 

 nice way, but slow and tedious, and somewhat disastrous to the cans, and quite 

 as much so to your temper should your cans break in the water. The best plan 

 I know of is steaming, not in a common steamer over a kettle of water, but 

 in one of those patent steamers sold by nearly all our hardware merchants. 

 These you can fill with your fruit and sugar, no water is needed, and when done 

 you have plenty of rich juice. Your fruit will be as whole as beforo cooking. 

 You can do a large or small quantity. It only occupies a small portion of 

 your stove. The fruit retains its full flavor, none passing of! in the strain aa 

 each compartment shuts tight. I think the greatest care should bo exercised 

 in canning to have the fruit perfectly healthful. I am sure a great deal of 

 fruit is put upon the table that is not fit to be eaten. Fruit that has had an 

 inch or two of mould upon the top, or, as it is termed, has "turned," such 

 fruit is by no means wholesome. 



