Putting Food By - Janet Greene [53]
In jars. Fill with hot berries and juice, leaving ½ inch of headroom. Proceed and process as for Raw pack.
• Adjustment for my altitude_________________.
In R-enamel, white enamel, or plain cans. Fill to the top with hot berries and juice, leaving no headroom. Proceed and process as for Raw pack.
Unsweetened Hot Pack (Most Firm Berries)
This is often used for sugar-restricted diets; it is also another way of canning berries intended for pies.
Pour just enough cold water in a kettle to cover the bottom. Add the berries and place over very low heat. Bring to a simmer until they are hot throughout, shaking the pot—not stirring—to keep them from sticking.
Pack hot fruit and its juice, leaving headroom as above; remove any air bubbles by running a plastic blade around the inner side of the container. Process as for Raw pack.
Specific Berries (Except Strawberries)
Blackberries
Raw pack. Usually considered soft, so for overall versatility use Raw pack under the General Procedure above. With boiling water or Thin or Medium Syrup—but Medium Syrup if you want them table-ready. In jars or R-enamel or white enamel cans.
Blueberries
Though in the firm category, they actually break down too much in the standard Hot pack (but they make a lovely sauce for ice cream, etc., if you want to can them by Hot pack with a good deal of extra sweetening). Old-timers dried them to use like currants in fruit cake.
Raw pack. With boiling water or syrup (Medium recommended). In jars or R-enamel or white enamel cans. Proceed and process under General Procedure above.
Raw pack variation. If you want to hold them as much like their original texture and taste as possible when canned (to use like fresh berries in cakes, muffins, pies), you must blanch them. Put no more than 3 quarts of berries in a single layer of cheesecloth about 20 inches square. Gather and hold the cloth by the corners, and dunk the bundle to cover the berries in boiling water until juice spots show on the cloth—about 30 seconds. Dip the bundle immediately in cold water to cool the berries. Drain them.
Fill jars, leaving ½ inch of headroom. Add no water or sweetening; adjust lids. Process as for standard Raw pack under General Procedure above.
Boysenberries
Soft; in Raw pack as under General Procedure. Use jars or R-enamel or white enamel cans.
Cranberries
These hold so well fresh in proper cold storage (see “Root-Cellaring,” Chapter 22) or in the refrigerator, and they also freeze, so they probably make the most sense canned if they’re done as whole or jellied sauce.
Use jars only.
For about 6 pints Whole Sauce. Boil together 4 cups sugar and 2 cups water for 5 minutes. Add 8 cups (about 2 pounds) of washed, stemmed cranberries, and boil without stirring until the skins burst. Pour boiling hot into clean hot jars, leaving ½ inch of headroom, and run a plastic blade or spatula around the inner side of the jar to remove trapped air. After filling with ½ inch of headroom, adjust lids, and process pints in a B–W Bath (212 F/100 C) for 10 minutes. Remove jars; complete seals if using bailed jars.
• Adjustment for my altitude_________________.
For 4 pints Jellied Sauce. Boil 2 pounds of washed, stemmed berries with 1 quart of water until the skins burst. Push berries and juice through a food mill or strainer. Add 4 cups sugar to the resulting purée, return to heat, and boil almost to the jelly stage (see Testing for Doneness in Jelly section in Chapter 18). Pour into hot, straight-sided jars (so it will slip out easily); cap, and process in a B–W Bath for 10 minutes. Remove jars; cool upright.
Currants
Currants are a novelty in certain sections of the United States where the bushes were uprooted because they harbored a fungus destructive to the white pine. If you are fortunate enough to have some, by all means make jelly with them. Turn extra ones into dessert sauce; dry some; and freeze some too.
Classed as firm berries, they can be packed Hot as under General Procedure; in jars or R-enamel or white enamel