How To Can Fruits, Tomatoes, Pickled Vegetables

Fruits, tomatoes, and pickled vegetables are canned according to the general directions on pages 5 to 8, the detailed directions for each food on pages 11 to 16, and the special directions given below that apply only to acid foods.

Points on Packing

Raw pack.—Put cold, raw fruits into container and cover with boiling-hot sirup, juice, or water. Press tomatoes down in the containers so they are covered with their own juice; add no liquid.

Hot pack.—Heat fruits in sirup, in water or steam, or in extracted juice before packing. Juicy fruits and tomatoes may be preheated without added liquid and packed in the juice that cooks out.

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To hot pack fruit, pack heated fruit loosely into jars.

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Cover fruit with boiling liquid before closing jars and processing in boiling-water bath.

Sweetening Fruit

Sugar helps canned fruit hold its shape, color, and flavor. Directions for canning most fruits call for sweetening to be added in the form of sugar sirup. For very juicy fruit packed hot, use sugar without added liquid.

To make sugar sirup.—Mix sugar with water or with juice extracted from some of the fruit. Use a thin, medium, or heavy sirup to suit the sweetness of the fruit and your taste. To make sirup, combine—

4 cups of water or juice	2 cups sugar	For 5 cups THIN sirup.
	3 cups sugar	For 5½ cups MEDIUM sirup.
	4¾ cups sugar	For 6½ cups HEAVY sirup.

Boil sugar and water or juice together 5 minutes. Skim if necessary.

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To extract juice.—Crush thoroughly ripe, sound juicy fruit. Heat to simmering (185° to 210° F.) over low heat. Strain through jelly bag or other cloth.

To add sugar direct to fruit.—For juicy fruit to be packed hot, add about ½ cup sugar to each quart of raw, prepared fruit. Heat to simmering (185° to 210° F.) over low heat. Pack fruit in the juice that cooks out.

To add sweetening other than sugar.—You can use light corn sirup or mild-flavored honey to replace as much as half the sugar called for in canning fruit. Do not use brown sugar, or molasses, sorghum, or other strong-flavored sirups; their flavor overpowers the fruit flavor and they may darken the fruit.

Canning Unsweetened Fruit

You may can fruit without sweetening—in its own juice, in extracted juice, or in water. Sugar is not needed to prevent spoilage; processing is the same for unsweetened fruit as for sweetened.

Processing in Boiling-Water Bath

Directions.—Put filled glass jars or tin cans into canner containing hot or boiling water. For raw pack in glass jars have water in canner hot but not boiling; for all other packs have water boiling.

Add boiling water if needed to bring water an inch or two over tops of containers; don’t pour boiling water directly on glass jars. Put cover on canner.

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After jars are covered with boiling water, place lid on water-bath canner and bring water quickly back to boiling.

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When water in canner comes to a rolling boil, start to count processing time. Boil gently and steadily for time recommended for the food you are canning. Add boiling water during processing if needed to keep containers covered.

Remove containers from the canner immediately when processing time is up.

Processing times.—Follow times carefully. The times given apply only when a specific food is prepared according to detailed directions.

If you live at an altitude of 1,000 feet or more, you have to add to these processing times in canning directions, as follows:

Altitude	Increase in processing time if the time called for is—
	20 minutes or less	More than 20 minutes
1,000 feet	1 minute	2 minutes.
2,000 feet	2 minutes	4 minutes.
3,000 feet	3 minutes	6 minutes.
4,000 feet	4 minutes	8 minutes.
5,000 feet	5 minutes	10 minutes.
6,000 feet	6 minutes	12 minutes.
7,000 feet	7 minutes	14 minutes.
8,000 feet	8 minutes	16 minutes.
9,000 feet	9 minutes	18 minutes.
10,000 feet	10 minutes	20 minutes.

To Figure Yield of Canned Fruit From Fresh

The number of quarts of canned food you can get from a given quantity of fresh fruit depends upon the quality, variety, maturity, and size of the fruit, whether it is whole, in halves, or in slices, and whether it is packed raw or hot.

Generally, the following amounts of fresh fruit or tomatoes (as purchased or picked) make 1 quart of canned food:

	Pounds
Apples	2½ to 3
Berries, except strawberries	1½ to 3 (1 to 2 quart boxes)
Cherries (canned unpitted)	2 to 2½
Peaches	2 to 3
Pears	2 to 3
Plums	1½ to 2½
Tomatoes	2½ to 3½

In 1 pound there are about 4 medium apples, peaches, or tomatoes; 3 medium pears; 12 medium plums.