PRESERVIiNG FRUITS ANK VEGETABLES. 



THE BEST WAY OF PRESERVING FRUITS AND VEGETABLES. 



BY H., DAYTON, O. 



Your June number has a communication from " L., of South Carolina," asking infor- 

 mation as to the proper method of preserving fruits and vegetables, with the flavor of those 

 freshly gathered. 



Though too late for any fruit but peaches, or vegetables, except, perhaps, tomatoes, this 

 season, I will send 3'ou the method I have successfully practiced fur five years, in keeping 

 gooseberries, cherries, plums, peaches, peas, Lima beans, green corn, and tomatoes. 



Tin cans, of about three quart capacity, are a convenient size for an ordinary family; 

 the hole in the top should be about three inches diameter, and the cover pierced with as 

 minute a hole as possible. Fill the can with the prepared fruit, solder the top on, place it 

 over the fire in a pan or ketlSe, containing water enough to rise within an inch of the top 

 of the can, and heat until the contents attain the temperature of boiling water, then close 

 the hole in the cover, and the thing is done. 



For peas, Lima beans, and corn, I have found it better to manage somewhat difFerentl}^, 

 and I think cans of about one-half the size above, sufficient, for the reason that these last 

 should be eaten directly after being opened, while the others may be easily kept a da^^ or 

 more in cool weather, if not all needed at once. Peas and beans are put in water and 

 brought to the boiling point, then filled into the cans hot, sealed up, and the cans im- 

 mersed in boiling water, where they should remain half an hour at least. Corn is treated 

 in the same way, using milk instead of water — I do not know whether the cans filled hot 

 need any aperture for the escape of air — this depends upon the rationale of the Avhole 

 process. Ure, in his Dictionary, suggests that its preservative propertj^is effected by the 

 small quantity of air which he assumes is retained in the can, becoming carbonized, but I 

 think that where there is an aperture for the escape of tlie contained air, the steam from 

 the water within M'ill force out the whole of the air, so that the can, closed immediately 

 and cooled, contains nothing but the fruit and its juice, or the vegetables, and the water or 

 milk in which they were boiled. If the first explanation is correct, no aperture need be 

 left, as there will be so little difference of temperature between the can full of heated ve- 

 getables, and the boiling point to which they are to be again raised, that there will be no 

 danger of bursting the can; and it will avoid some trouble, for it sometimes exercises the 

 patience and temper of an amateur tinker to close the can securely when hot, and the steam 

 excited by the touch of the hot soldering iron — but if the latter be right, the hole in the 

 crater must be made for the escape of all the air. 



I am confirmed in the latter view from facts of my own experience. We sometimes put 

 up fruit in glass or stone-ware jars, tied over with a double bladder. These are tied se- 

 curely before they are heated, and of course contain air where not occupied with fruit — but 

 we invariably find about half an inch in depth, from the top of the fruit, spoiled. This, 

 I think, must be the effect of the small portion of air contained — but mj' facts, i. c. ex- 

 periences, are probably more interesting than my philosophy, and the}^ are impregnable. 



In our communit}^, prcserVi'd [I mean preserved in sugar or syrup] peaches, plums, — 

 indeed the whole catalogue of these monsters of indigestion, aie becoming " rara aves" be- 

 fore the economy and luxury of this better way. 



I infer this will not meet your correspondent's views, M'ho evidently expected to pre- 

 serve his strawberries with the moisture of the morning dew gleaming upon their 

 sides, and his peaches with their bloom untarnished, but it is the next best thin 



