185G Report of Farmers' Institutes 



and vegetables for several reasons. The long time necessary to 

 have a very hot fire in one's kitchen, making the room very un- 

 comfortable for doing other work, and the amount of fuel used, 

 as well as the handling of the hot cans. 



All things considered I prefer the fireless cooker for canning 

 all vegetables and fruit. For fifteen years I have used a home- 

 made cooker for this purpose. 



By this method the fresh fiiiit is placed in cans, the cans filled 

 to overflowing with boiling syru^p and the tops screwed on. After 

 the cans are placed in the compartment of the cooker, boiling 

 water is poured over the cans to cover them and the cooker is 

 fastened up. 



In canning vegetables I place the cans after filling with the 

 vegetables, water and some salt, in the steam cooker until the con- 

 tents are boiling hot; I then put them in the fireless cooker. By 

 this method the cans do not have to be opened to refill ; there is no 

 danger from handling hot cans and no extra heat used in the 

 kitchen. It is just as necessary to sterilize every article used in 

 the process as when the other methods are used. 



In making preserves, small jelly glasses should be used. The 

 general rule is equal "weights of sugar and fruit. We might speak 

 of one method called the " platter " method of preserving, using 

 strawberries for example. Put sugar and berries in layers, hav- 

 ing not more than four inches in all in the kettle. Heat slowly 

 to boiling point, boil ten minutes from the time it begins to 

 bubble. Pour this on a platter two or three inches deep and let 

 stand in a suimy window in an imused room three or four days. 

 In that time the fruit will grow plump and firm and the fruit 

 thicken almost to a jelly. Put this preserve cold into jars or 

 tumblers. 



In the making of jelly, housekeepers feel less sure than in any 

 other kind of preserving; since a rule that works one year may 

 not tho next. That is to say, in a season when there has been a 

 great deal of heat and sunshine there will be more sugar in fruit 

 than in a cold, wet season ; consequently a pint of currant juice 

 will require % of a pint of sugar. But if it is a cold, wet season 

 the pint of currant juice will require a generous pint of sugar. 



Jelly sometimes crystallizes from too hard boiling. If syrup 



