Beets and rhubarb when packed in tin must be put in enamel-lined cans.

Process pints as for No. 2 cans; quarts as for No. 3 cans, adding 10 minutes to each period.

String beans when more mature should be processed at 15 pounds pressure for 30 minutes for No. 2, and 45 minutes for No. 3.

CHAPTER XI

WHY CANNED GOODS SPOIL

Every day brings letters to my desk saying, “Why did my jars of vegetables lose water?” or, “When I looked into my canner I saw all the beautiful dark sirup in the bottom of the canner instead of in the jars,” or, “What shall I do, my beets are all white?” etc., etc.  In this chapter I am going to try and tell you a few things you must and must not do.  A few “Do’s” and “Don’ts” may help you a little in your canning and food preserving.

I want to say right here that if you have failures do not blame the method as we are always so apt to do.  Experts have worked long enough, carefully and thoroughly enough, to convince themselves and others that the cold-pack method and the intermittent method, which methods are employed for cooking the product in the jar, are sure, safe, reliable and efficient methods.  So if your food spoils convince yourself it is not the method but something else.  Spoilage is due to imperfect jars, imperfect rubbers, imperfect sealing of tin cans, careless blanching, insufficient cold dipping or poor sterilizing.

CAN-RUBBERS

Possibly your canning troubles are all due to using a poor grade of rubber rings.  This is poor economy.  Rubbers are apt to give more trouble than anything else to canners when using glass jars.  Many of the rubbers sold are of a very poor quality, disintegrating quickly when subjected to heat and strain.  My sister, canning in the hot climate of India, has more trouble with the rubber proposition than anything else.

You want good rubbers, are willing to pay for them, and here is what you should know about rubber rings.

The one-period, cold-pack method and the intermittent method of home canning require a rubber ring essentially different from that commonly used in the old hot-pack method of home canning.  Investigation shows that many of the rings upon the market are unsuitable for these newer methods, being unable to withstand the long periods of boiling required in the canning of vegetables and meats.

Practical canning tests have indicated that rubber rings for use in this method should meet the following requirements: 

Inside Diameter.  The ring should fit closely, requiring a little stretching to get it around the neck of the jar.  For standard jars the ring should have an inside diameter of 21/4 inches.

Width of Ring and Flange.  The width of the ring or flange may vary from one-fourth of an inch to twelve thirty-seconds of an inch.  Tests which have been made show that fewer cases of “blow-out” occur when the flange is ten thirty-seconds of an inch.