BOTTLING VARIOUS FRUITS 31 
Have ready a basin of water, into which some lemon 
juice has been squeezed; drop the fruit into this, and 
then fill the bottles with the fruit so prepared, and at 
once add the water or syrup. If there is any delay the 
fruit will turn brown, and it is to prevent this happening 
that it is dropped into the basin of water, the lemon juice 
keeping it white. 
Tomatoes may be taken either as fruit or vegetable. 
Generally they come under the head of the latter, but 
as either they are most excellent bottled. They require 
a little more trouble than most other fruits to bottle 
successfully. “They should be used small, and just 
coloured, as they have to be done at a high temperature, 
in order to insure complete sterilisation. In places 
where tomatoes are grown in quantities the small ones 
are often reserved for bottling. Pack in bottles as 
directed for plums, and cover with water. Bring the 
temperature up to 170% Take out of the steriliser 
after an hour at this temperature, and leave for 24 
hours ; then repeat sterilisation at 170. Again leave for 
two or three days, and again sterilise at the same 
temperature. By doing them thus three times they will 
remain like fresh fruit, and can be kept for any length 
of time. 
Strawberries.— When mentioning the soft fruits straw- 
berries were omitted. Of all the soft fruits strawberries 
are the only ones that are really difficult. To the 
uninitiated strawberries are always a disappointment. 
When the bottles are taken out of the steriliser they 
present the appearance of a quarter of a bottle of straw- 
berries floating at the top of a sea of juice. The only 
way to overcome this is to empty the contents of one 
bottle into another after sterilising. When one bottle 
is full, fill with syrup, and sterilise again. This fruit 
loses its colour very much during the process, takes a 
lot of trouble to do, and is rather insipid when done. 
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