OF late years, the process of canning fruit has largely superseded the old-fashioned preserving. It is cheaper, less trouble, and, at least for all firm-fleshed fruits, makes a more wholesome article of diet.
But, although canning is believed to be a comparatively modern process, it differs very little from the bottling of our grandmothers. The theory of bottling was to rely little, and sometimes not at all, on cooking or sugar to preserve fruit, but on the exclusion of air. They sealed their bottles hermetically, and that is just what we do with the cans.
The idea to be got rid of with regard to fruits is, that the quantity of sugar used has any effect in their preservation. If they are hermetically sealed, they will keep as well without sugar; but the use of a moderate quantity is advisable, as it is very difficult indeed to sweeten fruit satisfactorily after it has been kept without, and the fact that no sugar is necessary is mentioned, not as a recommendation to use none, but simply as a truth to be fixed well in the mind.
There is a wonderful difference in the quality of canned fruits, even when the keeping qualities are equal, some being watery and tasteless, others rich and full flavored. Much of this may be due to the quality of the fruit, but I have known the same fruit to produce, in different hands, the most luscious results and quite ordinary ones.
The great essential to handsome, high-flavored, luscious canned or preserved fruit is that your peaches, pears, plums, or cherries should have been allowed to ripen on the tree. They should be just ripe, but not at all over ripe. Fruit can rarely be bought in cities under such conditions; it is gathered very unripe, and allowed to ripen during its transit. How necessary this method of gathering fruit may be, I do not pretend to say; but it is obvious that such fruit must lack the full, perfect flavor of that ripened on the tree, its juice slowly sweetening and enriching itself in the hot sun.
All those that live where fruit grows abundantly, even if they do not cultivate their own, may make the condition, when ordering, that it is to be delivered when ripe. The fear of having no immediate customer for it if he leaves it on the tree will cause the farmer to gather it unripe, even when he only takes it to the village grocery for sale. Unripe, it will keep a few days; ripe, it needs to be used at once. But, even if the arrangement requires a special interview with the farmer, perhaps a walk or drive in order to make it, the improved quality of your preserves will amply repay you.
There are two well-known and long-tried modes of canning fruit, and a third, which I will call my own, since I know of no one that uses it, and I may say that I evolved it out of my gastronomic consciousness. In the first place, have everything ready before you begin. Rapid work is necessary to success. See that every can is clean, every rubber ring perfect, and have the cans, with cover and ring by each can, on a large table, so arranged that the preserving pan will be on your right hand and an old tray or large platter immediately in front of you, on which to fill cans; and any fruit used must be perfectly sound and free from blemish; anything less than perfect had better be made into jam or marmalade.
Peaches, if fully ripe, are handsome if they are not pared; but if they are, put into boiling water, half a dozen at a time; the skin can be stripped from them as you would skin tomatoes. Drop them into a deep pan of very cold water, as you do tomatoes, taking care that they do not remain in the boiling water long enough to soften them. If you pare them, drop them also as you do tomatoes, into cold water, to prevent discoloring.
Plums of all kinds should be pricked with a large needle, to prevent bursting. The stem may be left on, if you like to have them resemble the fine imported fruits. Cherries may be pitted, but the flavor is not so fine as when canned with the stones in them. They may also have the stems left on, clipping off about half the length.
Make a syrup of sugar and water in the proportion of one pound of sugar to a teacup of water. Boil and skim, but do not stir it after it is once dissolved. Allow half a pound of sugar to one pound of fruit, if you wish a rich confection. Drop the fruit into the syrup; let it boil gently till clear, but not at all broken. Carry the preserving pan to the table. The cans should have been half filled with hot water to heat them when you.drop in your fruit.
Your work now must be as rapid as possible. A can-filler will assist you. After emptying out the water into a vessel near you, fill each can to the neck with the fruit. Then pour in syrup till it runs over. Put on the cover and rubber immediately, and screw down, as closely as you can. Cover your hand with a towel in order to handle. The whole secret of hermetical sealing is to have the cover screwed on while the fruit is still very hot, and to have the cans so full that no air can get in. When cool, tighten again with the wrench that comes with the cans for the purpose.
A second way and one that is less trouble is to fill the cans with fruit and syrup, screw the tops partly on, cover the bottom of a wash boiler with hay, stand the cans in it, and insert whisps of hay between the bottles to prevent violent contact. Pour lukewarm water up to the neck of the cans, and then place a board and weights on them. Let them come gradually to the boiling point and boil from two minutes to a quarter of an hour, according to the size of the fruit. Remove each can carefully with a long, strong skimmer, and protect your left hand with a cloth, so that you can grasp the top. Tighten the top the moment you take it out, and do not set it in a draught or on a cold table; the sudden chill may crack your cans.
When these cool, the contents will have shrunken; but do not fill up or remove the covers, but tighten them again. Keep all preserves in a cool, dark place; if you cannot do that, paper each can, as light destroys the color.
The third, and what I have called “my way,” is to boil in one or two quarts of water, according to the syrup needed, the fruit I have discarded as not fine enough for canning (not bad or decayed, of course), adding to it if there is not much bruising, small fruit, cutting up pears, peaches, etc. Boil rapidly till soft. Strain and squeeze, as you would for jelly. Use a cup of this juice just as you would the water to make syrup. Then proceed as in either of the foregoing recipes.
If you have pitted your cherries, you may restore some of the lost flavor by cracking the stones, and adding the kernels, uncooked, as you remove the fruit from the fire. Do the same with peaches. The far better way with cherries is not to pit them.
Strawberries and raspberries are canned by making a syrup and boiling it till it will remain in a bead if dropped on a cold plate. Drop in your fruit, heat it only to the boiling point, then can at once.
