THE MANITOBA HEALTH COOK BOOK

Chapter XVIII
CANNING, PICKLING, PRESERVING

Canadian housewives have with success and satisfaction canned
fruits for many years past. In these days an increasing proportion
of them are learning that vegetables and meats may be similarly
preserved and utilized on the table practically as fresh. “Thus dur-
ing the long cold months vegetables may be served very much as
if they had just been brought in from the garden retaining in a
marvellous degree their original flavors; and the finest meats may
during the heat of summer be brought from the cellar and enjoyed
as formerly was seldom possible excepting in the late fall and win-
ter. It should be emphasized that there is nothing in the process
which cannot be accomplished by any average kitchen worker and
that the equipment need not be elaborate nor expensive.

Sterilization—The secret of success is in the one word “steril-
ization’. Foodstuffs decay, “go bad,’ as we say, only when they
are acted upon by microscopic forms of life, which we commonly
call bacteria, yeasts or moulds. If food to be canned can be thor-
oughly cleansed, the microscopic life associated with it killed by
heat, and the food then sealed from all contact by other bacteria,
yeasts or moulds—the trick is done. Cannin¢ is the sterilizing of
food by applying heat so that all microscopic life is killed and the
sealing of it so that no other such life may have contact with it.

First: Have the food, whatever it is that is to be canned, as
fresh as possible.

Second: See that containers, utensils, employed and food it-
self is as nearly as possible absolutely clean. This applies to dish
cloths, rubbers, sealers, spoons, knives, forks—-everything that con-
tacts the food.

Third: See that in the handling and processing no possible
channel of contact for cell life to the food is permitted until it is
securely sealed.

The Cold Pack Process—Jhe process may be generally de-
scribed in a single sentence. Clean the food to be canned, pack it
in cans that are thoroughly clean, cover with syrup or with water
and sterilize by boiling can and contents together.

The only equipment needed is a container with a closely fit-
ting cover, deep enough to allow the cans to be completely covered
‘with water, and a false bottom, made of slats so as to fit the ct
tainer, keeping the cans from resting directly on the bottom and
mitting free circulation of the water about them.

150