150 
WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE 
June, 1917 
Beets. 
Young beets may be canned 
either whole or sliced, and with or 
without vinegar. 
Mrs. Borer’s Recipe. 
“Select young fresh beets; wash, 
put them into boiling water and 
boil carefully for thirty minutes; 
then remove the skins, and pack the 
beets into quart jars. Add a half 
pint of vinegar to a quart of water 
that has been boiled and cooled ; fill 
the jars with this mixture. Finish 
as directed for peas, cooking forty- 
five minutes.” 
After cooking the beets thirty 
or more minutes, I rub off the skins, 
slice the beets, run cold water 
through them, then half fill the jars 
with sterilized water, then put in 
the chilled beets and finish as di- 
rected after adding half a tea- 
spoon of salt. They should boil an 
hour in the boiler. I have also 
canned young carrots and spinach 
in this way. The carrots were suc- 
cessful but as carrots can be so 
easily stored in the cellar in sand, 
it is not necessary to can them. 
One can out of several that I did 
of spinach was successful. I am 
inclined to think that the others 
would also have been had I canned 
them in the orthodox way, but I 
tried cooking them in the hay box 
instead of the boiler and so failed. 
Corn. 
Many years ago Mrs. Knapp saw 
a paragraph in the Breeders’ Ga- 
zette telling some woman’s experi- 
ence in canning corn. On that 
foundation she has since worked up 
the process hereafter given. 
The paragraph mentioned par- 
ticularly the fact that the corn 
must be gathered at such an hour 
of the day that there should be no 
moisture upon the husks from rain 
or dew, that after gathering the 
corn must be spread out separately 
to avoid all danger of heating or 
sweating by piling in heaps. 
The other details of manipula- 
tion are Mrs. Knapp’s. 
As said before the corn must be 
dry when gathered, the weather 
must not be damp, rainy or cloudy. 
Mrs. Knapp would sometimes 
gather her corn when a thunder 
shower threatened, but never after. 
The canning must be done only on 
clear pleasant days — never on a 
rainy day — why we do not know, 
but corn canned on a rainy day is 
more liable to spoil. 
After gathering the corn should 
either be used immediately or 
spread out on the floor of porch, 
shed, or cellar. It should be 
husked and the silk brushed off 
with such a brush as is usually us d 
to wash vegetables. After brushing 
the corn is cut from the cob with a 
sharp knife, not too close, and then 
the cob scraped down to get out the 
milk and pulp still adhering. As 
soon as enough corn is cut to fill a 
pint jar it should be immediately 
put in the jar and packed down 
firmly with a spoon or better still 
a stick just wide enough to go 
through the mouth of the jar easily 
and shaped something like a potato 
masher. 
The jar should not be filled above 
the shoulder to allow for expansion 
by heat of cooking. Mrs. Knapp 
adds no salt. I use V2 teaspoonful 
to each pint. As fast as filled each 
jar should be loosely covered and 
set in cold water to keep cool until 
all are ready for the boiler. 
Do not put on rubbers at this 
stage. 
When all the jars are ready put 
the grating or rack in the boiler, 
fill with cold water to two-thirds the 
height of the jar and boil for two 
hours after it begins to boil. If 
during the boiling any of the jars 
boil over they must now be wiped 
clean. The rubbers are now ad- 
justed making sure that no particle 
of corn be between them and the 
glass or the cover, and the cover 
must be fastened tight. The jars 
are then replaced in the boiler and 
enough hot water added to com- 
pletely cover them. They must 
boil for one and a half hours longer 
after coming to a boil. The jars 
must not be taken out until thor- 
oughly cool. Wipe the jars clean 
immediately as the scum is difficult 
to remove when once dried. The 
expansion of the corn in cooking 
varies greatly in the different varie- 
ties of corn and also the age. And 
this expansion is to be guarded 
against because it sometimes blows 
the covers off. No water must be 
allowed to enter the jars. By tight 
or firm packing and so excluding 
the air from between the kernels, 
the expansion seems to be lessened; 
but an even more important factor 
seems to be the prevention of fer- 
mentation previous to cooking by 
working quickly and without inter- 
ruption from the husking until the 
corn is in the jars and then keeping 
the jars standing in cold water. 
There is another way of doing 
corn when it is to be used for cream 
sou]), fritters and pudding, to score 
each row of kernels and then scrape 
out the pulp with a knife leaving 
the hulls on the cob ; or this may be 
done more rapidly by a corn-scorer, 
which can be purchased for fifteen 
cents. 
This pul]) should be handled even 
more rapidly than the cut com. 
The jars owing to the great expan- 
sion which takes place in cooking, 
should be only half filled. It is im- 
