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Ensuring High-Quality Canned Foods (1/2)

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Canning, Information 1 Guide

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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