Atlanta women's club cook book

The flavor of canned berries will be finer if sugar is used in canning. It is best to make this into a syrup. The use of berry juice instead of water in this syrup will give a richer color and flavor. For fine berries, use a syrup of 30 degrees density (about 3-1/2 lbs. sugar to one gal. juice or water). After the berries have been carefully sorted and lightly washed by placing in colander and pouring water over them instead of putting into a pan of water, pack as closely as possible without crushing. This can be done by putting a few berries in the jar, pressing them gently into place and proceeding layer by layer, than by nearly filling the jar loosely and then trying to press them down. Fill jars full of fruit, and cover with cooled syrup. Fit rubber, and then the lid, loosely on glass jar and process pints six minutes, quarts 12 minutes, counting the time after boiling begins. CHERRIES keep their flavor and color with difficulty in tin, even in enamel lined cans. For this reason glass is preferable. When canned whole they should be blanched to prevent splitting and then dropped into a cool syrup to plump. For sour cherries use No. 4 syrup ; for sweet ones No. 3. Process quart 25 minutes. FIGS for canning should be sound and firm. They may be treated with the soda bath as for preserving (see p. 36), cooked in the syrup from 40 to 60 minutes, then cooled and packed in No. 3 syrup and processed for 30 minutes in quart jars. Before preparing PEACHES make fruit Syrup No. 3 or 4 (see table), allowing about one cup water for each quart jar or No. 3 can. Put in one cracked peach pit for every quart of syrup. Boil for five minutes and strain. Sort the fruit, using firm, sound, uniform peaches for canning, and putting aside the soft broken ones for jam. Peeling may be done by placing the peaches in a wire basket or cheese cloth square and immersing in boiling water about one minute, until skins slip easily. Remove, plunge for a minute into cold water and slip off the skins. Cut into halves, remove seeds and immerse in the hot syrup. Allow to stand in the syrup until thoroughly cold. Pack at once, placing halves in overlapping layers, the concave surface of each half being downward and the blossom end facing glass. Fill each jar with syrup and paddle carefully to remove air bubbles. Process quart 20 minutes and half gallon, 35 minutes. Firm, perfect peaches may be lye peeled, but if very ripe the fruit is made too soft by this process. Have ready a boiling lye solution (4 tbsp. concentrated lye to one gal. water). Immerse the peaches in it for about 20 to 30 seconds. Lift them out and drop into clear boiling water for a like period. Then put through two cold water baths and in the second rub off all remaining skin. Keep the lye hot and abandon it for a fresh solution as soon as it turns dark. Select PEARS ripe but not soft. Peel, blanch, put in cold soda bath (1 tsp. soda to 1 gal. water), drain and pack rapidly. When packed whole, leave stems on and place each layer stems up, letting the second row fill the spaces between the two stems and repeat. Pack pears in No. 3 syrup and process quarts 30 minutes.