There is a little knack worth knowing about combining the sugar and water for the sirup.  If the sugar is sifted into the boiling water just as fine-grained cereals are sifted into water, there will be no scum formed.  This is a saving of sugar.

If you wish to can strawberries for the market or to win a prize at the county or state fairs, can them as follows: 

Canned by this recipe, strawberries will not rise to the top of the sirup.  Use only fresh, ripe, firm and sound berries.  Prepare them, and add eight ounces of sugar and two tablespoonfuls of water to each quart of berries.  Boil slowly for fifteen minutes in an enameled or acid-proof kettle.  Allow the berries to cool and remain several hours or over-night in the covered kettle.  Pack the cold berries in hot glass jars.  Put rubbers and caps of jars in position, not tight.  Sterilize for the length of time given below for the type of outfit used: 

Minutes
Water bath, homemade or commercial      8
Water seal, 214 degrees                 6
5 pounds steam pressure                 5
10 pounds steam pressure.           Do not use.

Remove the jars, tighten the covers, invert the jars to cool and test the joints.  Wrap the jars with paper to prevent bleaching.

CHAPTER III

HARD FRUITS

PINEAPPLES

The object of canning citrus fruits is, first, to save the surplus and by-products; second, to furnish wholesome fruits at reasonable cost to more of our people; third, to help the producer to transform by-products into net profits.

Almost every one likes canned pineapple, but some housewives stopped canning this fruit because they found that when cooked in sirup it seemed to get tough and less palatable.  Vegetable and fruit fibers are toughened when cooked with sugar for any length of time, so in all cases where you desire to keep the product as Nature grew it avoid this form of cooking.

When the product is put into the jars with a sirup and cooked in the jar you will have a product superior to the one that is cooked over the direct fire in the kettle with the sirup.

But pineapple slices or pieces are so hard they cannot be put directly into the jars as berries are.  Pineapples must undergo a preliminary process to make them palatable and soft.  This preliminary process is known in canning as “blanching.”

After the pineapple has been prepared by paring and removing the eyes, it can be left in slices or cut into cubes.  In cutting hold the pineapple at the top and use a sharp knife.  It is then placed in a wire basket or a piece of cheesecloth for the blanching.  Blanching means to immerse the product in boiling water for a certain length of time to reduce its bulk and soften it.

Pineapples are blanched for five minutes.  We scald peaches and apricots, which are soft fruits; but we blanch pineapples, apples and quinces, the hard fruits.