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Home Canning Methods
Title
Home Canning Methods
Excerpt
The reason that I am "back so soon to the subject of home canning is a request from one of my listeners. After our last canning talk, this listener called me and said:
"Won't you please explain the various ways of canning and tell me which is which and when to use which?"
I hesitated for a minute over that rather complicated question, and she went on to say: "You see, I hear my neighbors comparing notes about ‘oven canning’ and 'pressure canning' and 'open- kettle canning' and dear knows what all until I am in a terrible state of confusion. I want to put up my food this summer by the best and safest method. But all these different canning methods with their fancy names are worse than a Chinese puzzle tome. Please set me straight."
That was the request, listeners, that brought me back to canning matters today. And in reply, I am going to report what the canning people at the Bureau of Home Economics say about the various canning methods as a result of their experience with them. (As you know, research in home canning goes on the year around at this Bureau of the Department of Agriculture.)
The canning methods on the approved list today are not very many and not very complicated. Even what my listener spoke of as "their fancy names" ought not to be confusing. They all go back to a few simple principles. For example, the principle of canning itself is simply sterilizing food by heat and then sealing it to keep out spoilage organisms. The scientists who have been working on canning have found out that different foods require different amounts of heat for sterilizing. The T >- hove found that acid foods need less heating than non-acid foods in other words, that you can can fruits and tomatoes safely by heating to boiling temperature but that meat and fish and most vegetables require heating much a above the boiling point. As for fruit juice and tomato juice, these require the least heat of all; they will can safely at a temperature below boiling. The canning people have also found that the thinner a food is, the easier it is to can, because heat can penetrate it quickly. The more solid and thick a food is, the harder it is to sterilize it because heat penetrates it slowly.
"Won't you please explain the various ways of canning and tell me which is which and when to use which?"
I hesitated for a minute over that rather complicated question, and she went on to say: "You see, I hear my neighbors comparing notes about ‘oven canning’ and 'pressure canning' and 'open- kettle canning' and dear knows what all until I am in a terrible state of confusion. I want to put up my food this summer by the best and safest method. But all these different canning methods with their fancy names are worse than a Chinese puzzle tome. Please set me straight."
That was the request, listeners, that brought me back to canning matters today. And in reply, I am going to report what the canning people at the Bureau of Home Economics say about the various canning methods as a result of their experience with them. (As you know, research in home canning goes on the year around at this Bureau of the Department of Agriculture.)
The canning methods on the approved list today are not very many and not very complicated. Even what my listener spoke of as "their fancy names" ought not to be confusing. They all go back to a few simple principles. For example, the principle of canning itself is simply sterilizing food by heat and then sealing it to keep out spoilage organisms. The scientists who have been working on canning have found out that different foods require different amounts of heat for sterilizing. The T >- hove found that acid foods need less heating than non-acid foods in other words, that you can can fruits and tomatoes safely by heating to boiling temperature but that meat and fish and most vegetables require heating much a above the boiling point. As for fruit juice and tomato juice, these require the least heat of all; they will can safely at a temperature below boiling. The canning people have also found that the thinner a food is, the easier it is to can, because heat can penetrate it quickly. The more solid and thick a food is, the harder it is to sterilize it because heat penetrates it slowly.
Creator
U.S. Department of Agriculture. Bureau of Home Economics
Date
1936
Relation
Housekeepers' Chat
File(s)
Home Canning Methods 1.jpg
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Home Canning Methods 2.jpg
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