How To Preserve Produce Without Refrigeration
(Page 6 of 9)
July/August 1971
By Frank Garrett
Foods which are soft or have been cooked mushy can be placed in the mill and forced through the holes in its bottom by turning the handle in the proper direction. In this manner, fruit and vegetable pulp can be separated from seeds and skins without peeling, paring, coring or pitting. Many hours can be saved by processing cooked apples, pears, cherries, grapes, potatoes, summer squash, sweet potatoes, yams and pumpkins with this ingenious device.
RELATED CONTENT
Countless long and heated arguments have raged over the containers used for home canning and the two most popular at present are tin cans and glass jars. I prefer glass over tin because glass jars are easy to use, do not require the added expense of a crimper and both the jar tops (if you get the right kind) and jars can be reused indefinitely . . . whereas tin cans can be recycled only about a half dozen times and their lids just once. If you want to become a tin freak, however, that's entirely your business.
Tin cans commonly used are Nos. 2, 303, 4, 6 and 10 . . . containing 1, 5, 2, 4, 6 and 16 cups respectively. Plain tinned cans are quite adequate for most foods but, for others, you'll need a crimper with which to remove the remains of the previous can top, flare the edge of the can and seal on a new top.
Common sizes for glass jars are pint, quart, half gallon and gallon and the standard mouth size is 2-1/2 inches. Other jars are available but I've found that it avoids confusion to use only standard sizes.
Tin cans have one obvious advantage: they never break when dropped. On the other hand, everything canned in tins must be clearly labeled whereas the contents of glass jars are readily visible from the outside. By the way, nothing cheers me more than a pantry laden with jars whose colorful contents sparkle through glass skins.
The use of tin cans for home canning also presents a small problem of availability. Although plain cans may be found in great numbers at the local dump, enameled tins are generally as scarce as the proverbial hen's teeth. They're also expensive to buy and, since can tops are not reuseable, new lids must be purchased for even scavenged plain cans. Glass jars, however, are available by the millions in trash cans and garbage dumps all over this wasteful country and I have no qualms about collecting as many as I need.
Three types of tops are now generally used on glass canning jars and two of the three are reuseable. The best jar top is the one lined with porcelain and a second good closure is made of metal and electroplated with brass. Both of these tops may be recycled (the one lined with porcelain forever and ever) when properly sealed with rubber rings. I advise against use of the third top, which comes in two parts: cap and ring. The cap is flat and has a groove around the edge filled with rubber. The ring is threaded to fit the top of the jar and looks like a regular jar top with the center cut out. The ring is useable but the cap is not since you must bend it to pry it off.
Page:
<< Previous 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 | 6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
Next >>
