Ensuring High-quality Canned Foods (1/2)

INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

Begin with good-quality fresh foods suitable for canning. Quality
varies among varieties of fruits and vegetables. Many county  Extension
offices can recommend varieties best suited for canning.  Examine food
carefully for freshness and wholesomeness. Discard  diseased and moldy
food. Trim small diseased lesions or spots from  food.  Can fruits and
vegetables picked from your garden or purchased from  nearby producers
when the products are at their peak of  quality-within 6 to 12 hours
after harvest for most vegetables. For  best quality, apricots,
nectarines, peaches, pears, and plums should  be ripened 1 or more days
between harvest and canning. If you must  delay the canning of other
fresh produce, keep it in a shady, cool  place.  Fresh home-slaughtered
red meats and poultry should be chilled and  canned without delay. Do
not can meat from sickly or diseased  animals. Ice fish and seafoods
after harvest, eviscerate immediately  and can them within 2 days.
Maintaining Color and Flavor in Canned Food  To maintain good natural
color and flavor in stored canned food, you  must:  Remove oxygen from
food tissues and jars, * Quickly destroy the food  enzymes, * Obtain
high jar vacuums and airtight jar seals.  Follow these guidelines to
ensure that your canned foods retain  optimum colors and flavors during
processing and storage:  Use only high-quality foods which are at the
proper maturity and are  free of diseases and bruises. Use the hot-pack
method, especially  with acid foods to be processed in boiling water
Don't unnecessarily  expose prepared foods to air. Can them as soon as
possible. While  preparing a canner load of jars, keep peeled, halved,
quartered,  sliced, or diced apples, apricots, nectarines, peaches, and
pears in  a solution of 3 grams (3,000 milligrams) ascorbic acid to 1
gallon of  cold water. This procedure is also useful in maintaining the
natural  color of mushrooms and potatoes, and for preventing stem-end
discoloration in cherries and grapes. You can get ascorbic acid in
several forms:  ** Pure powdered form--seasonally available among
canners' supplies in  supermarkets. One level teaspoon of pure powder
weighs about 3 grams.  Use 1 teaspoon per gallon of water as a
treatment solution.  ** Vitamin C tablets--economical and available
year-round in many  stores. Buy 500-milligram tablets; crush and
dissolve six tablets per  gallon of water as a treatment solution.  **
Commercially prepared mixes of ascorbic and citric acid--seasonally
available among canners' supplies in supermarkets. Sometimes citric
acid powder is sold in supermarkets, but it is less effective in
controlling discoloration. If you choose to use these products,  follow
the manufacturer's directions.  Fill hot foods into jars and adjust
headspace as specified in recipes.  Tighten screw bands securely, but
if you are especially strong, not as  tightly as possible. Process and
cool jars. Store the jars in a  relatively cool, dark place, preferably
between 50 degrees and 70  degrees F. Can no more food than you will
use within a year.
======================================================= === * USDA
Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 539 (rev. 1994) * Meal-Master
format courtesy of Karen Mintzias  From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster
collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini

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