MUSTARD PICKLES
24 cucumbers, 1 quart of small onions, 6 peppers, 2 heads of cauliflower, 4 cups of sugar, or less; celery or celery seed, 3 quarts of good vinegar, ½ pound of ground yellow mustard, 1 tablespoonful turmeric powder, ¾ cup of flour.
The seeds were removed from the cucumbers and cucumbers were cut in inch-length pieces, or use a few medium-sized cucumbers cut in several pieces and some quite small cucumbers. (The quantity of cucumbers when measured should be the same as if the larger ones had been used.) One quart of small whole onions, 6 peppers, red, green and yellow, two of each, cut in small pieces. Place all together in an agate preserving kettle and let stand in salt water over night. In the morning put on the range, the vegetables in agate kettle, let boil a few minutes, then drain well. Take three quarts of good vingar, 4 cups of sugar, if liked quite sweet; 2 teaspoons of either celery seed or celery cut in small pieces. Put the vinegar, sugar and celery in a preserving kettle, stand on stove and let come to a boil; then add the other ingredients. When boiling have ready a half pound of ground mustard, ¾ cup of flour, 1 tablespoon of turmeric powder, all mixed to a smooth paste with a little water. Cook until the mixture thickens. Add all the other ingredients and boil until tender. Stir frequently to prevent scorching. Can while hot in glass air-tight jars.
AUNT SARAH'S CUCUMBER PICKLES
Always use the cucumbers which come late in the season for pickles. Cut small green cucumbers from vine, leaving a half-inch of stem. Scrub with vegetable brush, place in a bowl and pour over a brine almost strong enough to float an egg; ¾ cup of salt to seven cups of cold water is about the right proportion. Allow them to stand over night in this brine. Drain off salt water in the morning. Heat a small quantity of the salt water and pour over small onions which have been "skinned." Use half the quantity of onions you have of cucumbers, or less. Allow the onions to stand in hot salt water on back of range a short time. Heat 1 cup of good sharp cider vinegar, if too sour, add ½ cup of water, also add 1 teaspoonful of sugar, a coupleof whole cloves; add cucumbers and onions (drained from salt water, after piercing each cucumber several times with a silver fork). Place a layer at a time in an agate stew-pan containing hot vinegar. Allow them to remain a few minutes until heated through, when fill heated glass jars with cucumbers and onions; pour hot vinegar over until jars are quite full. Place rubbers on jars and screw on tops. These pickles will be found, when jars are opened in six months' time, almost as crisp and fine as when pickles are prepared, when taken fresh from the vines in summer. Allow jars to stand 12 hours, when screw down tops again. Press a knife around the edge of jar tops before standing away to be sure the jars are perfectly air-tight.
"ROT PFEFFERS" FILLED WITH CABBAGE
Cut the tops from the stem end of twelve sweet (not hot) red peppers or "rot pfeffers," as Aunt Sarah called them. Carefully remove seeds, do not break outside shell of peppers. Cut one head of cabbage quite fine on a slaw-cutter; add to the cabbage 1 even tablespoonful of fine salt, 2 tablespoonfuls of whole yellow mustard seed (a very small amount of finely shredded, hot, red pepper may be added if liked quite peppery). Mix all together thoroughly, fill peppers with this mixture, pressing it rather tightly into the shells; place tops on pepper cases, tie down with cord. Place upright in stone jar, in layers; cover with cold vinegar. If vinegar is very strong add a small quantity of water. Tie heavy paper over top of jar and stand away in a cool place until used. These may be kept several months and will still be good at the end of that time.
AN OLD RECIPE FOR SPICED PICKLES
Add sugar according to strength of vinegar. Place cucumbers and pieces of horseradish in alternate layers in a stone jar, then put salt over them and cover with boiling water. Allow pickles to stand 24 hours in this brine, then pour off brine and wash pickles in cold water. Boil spices and vinegar together and pour over the pickles. In two weeks they will be ready to use. Pickles made over this recipe are excellent.
AUNT SARAH'S RECIPE FOR CHILI SAUCE
Tie in a small cheese cloth bag the following:
Chop tomatoes, onions and peppers rather finely; add vinegar, sugar and salt and the bag of spices and cook slowly about 2½ hours. Fill air-tight glass jars with the mixture while hot. This is a particularly fine recipe of Aunt Sarah's.
This quantity will fill five pint jars. Canned tomatoes may be used when fresh ones are not available.
TOMATO CATSUP
1½ peck ripe tomatoes, washed and cut in small pieces; also four large onions, sliced. Stew together until tender enough to mash through a fine sieve, reject seeds. This quantity of tomato juice should, when measured, be about four good quarts. Put tomato juice into a kettle on range, add one pint of vinegar, ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, 1½ tablespoons sugar, 1½ tablespoons salt; place in a cheese cloth bag 1 ounce of whole black pepper, 1 ounce whole cloves, 1 ounce allspice, 1 ounce yellowmustard seed and add to catsup. Boil down one-half. Bottle and seal while boiling hot. Boil bottles and corks before bottling catsup. Pour melted sealing-wax over corks to make them air-tight, unless self-sealing bottles are used.
PICKLED BEETS
One cup of sharp vinegar, 1 cup of water, 2 tablespoonfuls of sugar, 8 whole cloves and a pinch of black, and one of red pepper. Heat all together and pour over beets which have been sliced after being boiled tender and skins removed, and pack in glass jars which have been sterilized and if jars are air-tight these keep indefinitely.
MARMALADES, PRESERVES AND CANNED FRUITS
Young housewives, if they would be successful in "doing up fruit," should be very particular about sterilizing fruit jars, both tops and rubbers, before using. Heat the fruit to destroy all germs, then seal in air-tight jars while fruit is scalding hot. Allow jars of canned fruit or vegetables to stand until perfectly cold. Then, even should you think the tops perfectly tight, you will probably be able to give them another turn. Carefully run the dull edge of a knife blade around the lower edge of jar cap to cause it to fit tightly. This flattens it close to the rubber, making it air-tight.
To sterilize jars and tops, place in a pan of cold water, allow water to come to a boil and stand in hot water one hour.
For making jelly, use fruit, under-ripe. It will jell more easily, and, not being as sweet as otherwise, will possess a finer flavor. For jelly use an equal amount of sugar to a pint of juice. The old rule holds good—a pound of sugar to a pint of juice. Cook fifteen to twenty minutes. Fruit juice will jell more quickly if the sugar is heated in the oven before being added.
For preserving fruit, use about ¾ of a pound of sugar to 1 pound of fruit and seal in air-tight glass jars.
For canning fruit, use from ⅓ to ½ the quantity of sugar that you have of fruit.
When making jelly, too long cooking turns the mixture into a syrup that will not jell. Cooking fruit with sugar too long a time causes fruit to have a strong, disagreeable flavor.
Apples, pears and peaches were pared, cut in quarters and dried at the farm for Winter use. Sour cherries were pitted, dried and placed in glass jars, alternately with a sprinkling of granulated sugar. Pieces of sassafras root were always placed with dried apples, peaches, etc.
"FRAU" SCHMIDT'S RECIPE FOR APPLE BUTTER
For this excellent apple butter take 5 gallons of cider, 1 bucket of "Schnitz" (sweet apples were always used for the "Schnitz"), 2½ pounds of brown sugar and 1 ounce of allspice. The cider should be boiled down to one-half the original quantity before adding the apples, which had been pared and cored. Cider for apple butter was made from sweet apples usually, but if made from sour apples 4 pounds of sugar should be used. The apple butter should be stirred constantly. When cooked sufficiently, the apple butter should look clear and be thick as marmalade and the cider should not separate from the apple butter. Frau Schmidt always used "Paradise" apples in preference to any other variety of apple for apple butter.
CRANBERRY SAUCE
A delicious cranberry sauce, or jelly, was prepared by "Aunt Sarah" in the following manner: Carefully pick over and wash 1 quart of cranberries, place in a stew-pan with 2 cups of water; cook quickly a few moments over a hot fire until berries burst open, then crush with a potato-masher. Press through a fine sieve or a fruit press, rejecting skin and seeds. Add 1 pound of sugar to the strained pulp in the stew-pan. Return to the fire and cook two or three minutes only. Long, slow cooking destroys the fine flavor of the berry, as does brown sugar. Pour into a bowl, or mold, and place on ice, or stand in a cool place to become cold before serving, as an accompaniment to roast turkey, chicken or deviled oysters.
PRESERVED "YELLOW GROUND CHERRIES"
Remove the gossamer-like covering from small yellow "ground cherries" and place on range in a stew-pan with sugar. (Three-fourths of a pound of sugar to one pound of fruit.) Cook slowly about 20 minutes, until the fruit looks clear and syrup is thick as honey. Seal in pint jars.
These cherries, which grow abundantly in many town and country gardens without being cultivated, make a delicious preserve and a very appetizing pie may be made from them also.
Aunt Sarah said she preferred these preserved cherries to strawberries.
Frau Schmidt preferred the larger "purple" ground cherries, which, when preserved, greatly resembled "Guava" jelly in flavor.
"WUNDERSELDA" MARMALADE
This was composed of 2 quarts of the pulp and juice combined of ripe Kieffer pears, which had been pared and cored, (Measured after being run through a food chopper.) The grated yellow rind and juice of five medium-sized tart oranges, and 6½ cups granulated sugar. Cook all together about forty minutes, until a clear amber colored marmalade. Watch closely and stir frequently, as the mixture scorches easily. This quantity will fill about twenty small jelly tumblers. If the marmalade is to be kept some time, it should be put into air-tight glass jars.
The recipe for this delicious jam was original with the Professor's wife, and Fritz Schmidt, being particularly fond of the confection, gave it the name "Wunderselda," as he said "'twas not 'served often.'"
AUNT SARAH'S SPICED PEARS
Bartlett pears may be used, pared and cut in halves and core and seeds removed, or small sweet Seckel pears may be pared. Left whole, allow stems to remain, weigh, and to 7 pounds of either variety of pear take one pint of good cider vinegar, 3 poundsgranulated sugar, a small cheese cloth bag containing several tablespoonfuls of whole cloves and the same amount of stick cinnamon, broken in pieces; all were placed in a preserving kettle and allowed to come to a boil. Then the pears were added and cooked until tender. The fruit will look clear when cooked sufficiently. Remove from the hot syrup with a perforated spoon. Fill pint glass jars with the fruit. Stand jars in a warm oven while boiling syrup until thick as honey. Pour over fruit, in jars, and seal while hot.
PEACH MARMALADE
Thinly pare ripe peaches. Cut in quarters and remove pits. Place peaches in a preserving kettle with ½ cup of water; heat slowly, stirring occasionally. When fruit has become tender mash not too fine and to every three pounds of peaches (weighed before being cooked) allow 1½ pounds of granulated sugar. Cook sugar and fruit together about three-quarters of an hour, stirring frequently, until marmalade looks clear. Place in pint glass, air-tight jars. Aunt Sarah always preferred the "Morris White," a small, fine flavored, white peach, which ripened quite late in the fall, to any other variety from which to make preserves and marmalade.
AUNT SARAH'S GINGER PEARS
Use a hard, solid pear, not over ripe. Pare and core the fruit and cut into thin slivers. Use juice of lemons and cut the lemon rind into long, thin strips. Place all together in preserving kettle and cook slowly one hour, or until the fruit looks clear. Should the juice of fruit not be thick as honey, remove fruit and cook syrup a short time, then add fruit to the syrup. When heated through, place in pint jars and seal. This quantity will fill four pint jars and is a delicious preserve.
PEAR AND PINEAPPLE MARMALADE
Both pears and pineapples should be pared and eyes removed from the latter. All the fruit should be run through food-chopper using all the juice from fruit. Mix sugar with fruit and juice and cook, stirring constantly until thick and clear. (Watch closely, as this scorches easily if allowed to stand a minute without stirring.) Pour into glass pint jars and seal while hot. Any variety of pear may be used, but a rather hard, solid pear is to be preferred. A recipe given Mary which she found delicious.
GRAPE BUTTER
Separate pulp and skins of grapes. Allow pulp to simmer until tender, then mash through a sieve and reject seeds. Add pulp to skins. Take ½ pound of sugar to one pound of fruit. Cook until thick, seal in air-tight jars.
CANNED SOUR CHERRIES FOR PIES
Pit cherries and cover with cold water and let stand over night. Drain in the morning. To 6 heaping cups of pitted cherries take 2 level cups of sugar, ½ cup water. Put all together into stew-pan on range, cook a short time, then add 1 teaspoonful of corn starch mixed with a little cold water and stir well through the cherries; let come to a boil, put in jars and seal. This quantity fills five pint jars. This is the way one country housekeeper taught Mary to can commonsourcherries for pies and she thought them fine.
CANDIED ORANGE PEEL
Cut orange peel in long, narrow strips, cover with cold water and boil 20 minutes. Pour off water, cover with cold water and boil another 20 minutes, then drain and take equal weight of peel and sugar. Let simmer 1 hour, then dip slices in granulated sugar. Stand aside to cool.
AUNT SARAH'S "CHERRY MARMALADE"
Pitted, red sour cherries were weighed, put through food-chopper, and to each pound of cherries and juice add ¾ pound of granulated sugar. Cook about 25 minutes until syrup is thick and fruit looks clear. Fill marmalade pots, cover with parafine when cool, or use pint glass jars and seal. One is sure of fruit keeping if placed in air-tight jars.
AUNT SARAH'S QUINCE HONEY
Pour 1 quart of water, good measure, in an agate stew-pan on the range with three pounds of granulated sugar. When boiling add 3 large, grated quinces, after paring them. Grate all but the core of quinces. Boil from 20 to 25 minutes, until it looks clear. Pour into tumblers. When cold, cover and stand away until used.
PICKLED PEACHES
Twelve pounds of peaches, 1 quart of vinegar, 3 pounds brown sugar. Rub the fuzz from the peaches. Do not pare them. Stick half a dozen whole cloves in each peach. Add spices to taste, stick-cinnamon, whole doves and mace. Put spices in a small cheese cloth bag and do not remove the bag, containing spices, when putting away the peaches. Scald sugar, vinegar and spices together and pour over the peaches. Cover closely and stand away. Do this twice, one day between. The third time place all together in a preserving kettle. Cook a few minutes, then place fruit in jars, about three-quarters filled. Boil down the syrup until about one-quarter has boiled away, pour over the peaches, hot, and seal in air-tight jars. This is an old and very good recipe used by "Aunt Sarah" many years.
CURRANT JELLY
Always pick currants for jelly before they are "dead ripe,"and never directly after a shower of rain. Wash and pick over and stem currants. Place in a preserving kettle five pounds of currants and ½ cup of water; stir until heated through then mash with a potato masher. Turn into a jelly bag, allow drip, and to every pint of currant juice add one pound of granulated sugar; return to preserving kettle. Boil twenty minutes, skim carefully, pour into jelly glasses. When cold cover tops of glasses with melted parafine.
PINEAPPLE HONEY
Pineapple honey was made in a similar manner to quince honey, using one large grated pineapple to one quart of cold water and three pounds of sugar. Boil 20 minutes.
PRESERVED PINEAPPLE
Pare the pineapples, run through a food chopper, weigh fruit, and to every pound of fruit add three-quarters of a pound of sugar. Mix sugar and fruit together and stand in a cool place over night. In the morning cook until fruit is tender and syrup clear; skim top of fruit carefully; fill jars and seal.
GRAPE CONSERVE
Wash and drain ten pounds of ripe grapes, separate the skins from the pulp, stew pulp until soft, mash through a sieve, reject seeds.
Place pulp and skins in a preserving kettle, add a half pound of seeded raisins and juice and pulp of 4 oranges. Measure and add to every quart of this ¾ of a quart of sugar. Cook slowly, until the consistency of jam. A cup of coarsely-chopped walnut meats may be added, if liked, a few minutes before removing jam from the range. Fill pint jars and seal.
MARY'S RECIPE FOR RHUBARB JAM
Skin and cut enough rhubarb in half-inch pieces to weigh three pounds. Add ½ cup cold water and 2 pounds of granulated sugar, and the grated yellow rind and juice of 2 large oranges. Cook all together, stirring occasionally to prevent scorching, a half hour, or until clear. This is a delicious jam.
APPLE SAUCE
When making apple sauce, cut good, tart apples in halves after paring them, cut out the cores, then cook, quickly as possible, in half enough boiling water to cover them. Cover the stew-pan closely. This causes them to cook more quickly, and not change color. Watch carefully that they do not scorch. When apples are tender, turn into sieve. Should the apples be quite juicy and the water drained from the apples measure a half pint, add a half pound of sugar, cook 15 or 20 minutes, until it jells, and you have a glass of clear, amber-colored jelly. Add 1 teaspoonful of butter and sugar to taste to the apple sauce, which has been mashed through the sieve. Apple sauce made thus should be almost the color of the apples before cooking. If the apple sauce is not liked thick, add some of the strained apple juice instead of making jelly; as some apples contain more juice than others.
RHUBARB MARMALADE (AS FRAU SCHMIDT MADE IT)
Cut rhubarb into small pieces, put in stew-pan with just enough water to prevent sticking fast. When cooked tender, mash fine with potato masher, and to three cups of rhubarb, measured before stewing, add 1 cup of granulated sugar, also 1 dozen almonds which had been blanched and cut as fine as possible, and stewed until tender, then added to hot rhubarb and sugar. Cook all together a short time. Serve either hot or cold. A large quantity may be canned for Winter use.
The addition of almonds gave the marmalade a delicious flavor A good marmalade may be made by adding the juice andthinly shaved outside peel of several lemons to rhubarb. Put all together in kettle on range with sugar. Cook over a slow fire until proper consistency. Turn into jars and leave uncovered until day following, when cover and seal air-tight.
GRAPE FRUIT MARMALADE
For this marmalade take 1 large grape fruit, 2 large oranges and 1 lemon. After thoroughly washing the outside of fruit, slice all as thinly as possible, rejecting the seeds. Measure and add three times as much water as you have fruit. Let all stand over night. The next morning boil 15 minutes, stand over night again, in a large bowl or agate preserving kettle. The next morning add 1 pound (scant measure) of sugar to each pint of the mixture and boil until it jells. This is delicious if you do not object to the slightly bitter taste of the grape fruit. Put in tumblers, cover closely with paraffin. This quantity should fill 22 tumblers, if a large grape fruit is used.
ORANGE MARMALADE
Slice whole oranges very thin and cut in short pieces after washing them. Save the seeds. To each pound of sliced oranges add 3 pints of cold water and let stand 24 hours. Then boil all together until the chipped rinds are tender. All the seeds should be put in a muslin bag and boiled with the oranges. Allow all to stand together until next day, then remove the bag of seeds, and to every pound of boiled fruit add a half pound of sugar. Boil continuously, stirring all the time, until the chips are quite clear and the syrup thick as honey on being dropped on a cold dish. The grated rind and juice of 2 lemons will improve the taste of marmalade if added at last boiling. When cooked sufficiently the marmalade should be clear. Pour at once into glass jars and cover closely.
CHERRY RELISH
After sour cherries have been pitted, weigh them and coverwith vinegar and let stand 24 hours. Take from the vinegar and drain well, then put into stone crocks in layers, with sugar, allowing 1 pound of sugar to 1 pound of cherries. Stir twice each day for ten days, then fill air-tight jars and put away for Winter use. These are an excellent accompaniment to a roast of meat.
CANNED PEACHES
When canning peaches make a syrup composed of 1 cup of sugar to 2 cups of water.
Place in preserving kettle and when sugar has dissolved cook thinly pared peaches, either sliced or cut in halves, in the hot syrup until clear, watching closely that they do not cook too soft. Place carefully in glass jars, pour hot syrup over and seal in jars.
Aunt Sarah also, occasionally, used a wash-boiler in which to can fruit. She placed in it a rack made of small wooden strips to prevent the jars resting on the bottom of the boiler; filled the jars with uncooked fruit or vegetables, poured over the jars of fruit hot syrup and over the vegetables poured water, placed the jars, uncovered, in the boiler; water should cover about half the height of jars. Boil until contents of jars are cooked, add boiling syrup to fill fruit jars and screw the tops on tightly.
PEAR CONSERVE
Use 5 pounds of pears, not too soft or over-ripe, cut like dice. Cover with water and boil until tender, then add 5 pounds of sugar. Peel 2 oranges, cut in dice the night before using; let diced orange peel stand, covered with cold water until morning. Then cook until orange peel is tender. Add this to the juice and pulp of the two oranges. Add one pound of seeded raisins and cook all together until thick honey. Put in glass jars and seal.
LEMON HONEY
The juice of 3 lemons, mixed with 3 cups of sugar. Add 3eggs, beating 1 in at a time. Add 2 cups of water and 2 tablespoonfuls of butter. Cook all together 20 minute, until thick as honey.
CANNED STRING BEANS
Aunt Sarah used no preservative when canning beans. She gathered the beans when quite small and tender, no thicker than an ordinary lead-pencil, washed them thoroughly, cut off ends and packed them into quart glass jars, filled to overflowing with cold water. Placed jar tops on lightly, and stood them in wash boiler in the bottom of which several boards had been placed. Filled wash boiler with luke warm water about two-thirds as high as tops of jars, cooked continuously three to four hours after water commenced to boil. Then carefully lifted jars from wash boiler, added boiling water to fill jars to overflowing, screwed on cover and let stand until perfectly cold, when give jar tops another turn with the hand when they should be air-tight. A good plan is to run the dull edge of a knife around the outer edge of the jar to be sure it fits close to the rubber, and will not admit air. Beans canned in this manner should keep indefinitely.
PRESERVED "GERMAN PRUNES" OR PLUMS
After washing fruit, piece each plum several times with a silver fork, if plums be preserved whole. This is not necessary if pits are removed. Weigh fruit and to each pound of plums take about ¾ pound of granulated sugar. Place alternate layers of plums and sugar in a preserving kettle, stand on the back of range three or four hours, until sugar has dissolved, then draw kettle containing sugar and plums to front of range and boil 20 minutes. Remove scum which arises on top of boiling syrup. Place plums in glass jars, pour boiling syrup over and seal.
A good rule is about four pounds of sugar to five pounds of plums.
Should plums cook soft in less than 20 minutes, take from syrup with a perforated skimmer, place in jars and cook syrup until as thick as honey; then pour over fruit and seal up jars.
BUCKS COUNTY APPLE BUTTER
A genuine old-fashioned recipe for apple butter, as "Aunt Sarah" made it at the farm. A large kettle holding about five gallons was filled with sweet cider. This cider was boiled down to half the quantity. The apple butter was cooked over a wood fire, out of doors. The cider was usually boiled down the day before making the apple butter, as the whole process was quite a lengthy one. Fill the kettle holding the cider with apples, which should have been pared and cored the night before at what country folks call an "apple bee," the neighbors assisting to expedite the work. The apples should be put on to cook as early in the morning as possible and cooked slowly over not too hot a fire, being stirred constantly with a long-handled "stirrer" with small perforated piece of wood on one end. There is great danger of the apple butter burning if not carefully watched and constantly stirred. An extra pot of boiling cider was kept near, to add to the apple butter as the cider boiled away. If cooked slowly, a whole day or longer will be consumed in cooking. When the apple butter had almost finished cooking, about the last hour, sweeten to taste with sugar (brown sugar was frequently used). Spices destroy the true apple flavor, although Aunt Sarah used sassafras root, dug from the near-by woods, for flavoring her apple butter, and it was unexcelled. The apple butter, when cooked sufficiently, should be a dark rich color, and thick like marmalade, and the cider should not separate from it when a small quantity is tested on a saucer. An old recipe at the farm called for 32 gallons of cider to 8 buckets of cider apples, and to 40 gallons of apple butter 50 pounds of sugar were used. Pour the apple butter in small crocks used for this purpose. Cover the top of crocks with paper, place in dry, cool store-room, and the apple butter will keep several years. In olden times sweet apples were used for apple butter, boiled in sweet cider, then no sugar was necessary. Small brown, earthen pots were used to keep this apple butter in, it being only necessary to tie paper over the top. Dozens of these pots, filled with apple butter, might have been seen in Aunt Sarah's store-room at the farm at one time.
CANNED TOMATOES
When canning red tomatoes select those which ripen earlyin the season, as those which ripen later are usually not as sweet. Wash the tomatoes, pour scalding water over, allow them to stand a short time, when skins may be easily removed. Cut tomatoes in several pieces, place over fire in porcelain-lined preserving kettle and cook about 25 minutes, or until an orange-colored scum rises to the top. Fill perfectly clean sterilised jars with the hot tomatoes fill quickly before they cool. Place rubber and top on jar, and when jars have become perfectly cold (although they may, apparently, have been perfectly air-tight), the tops should be given another turn before standing away for the Winter; failing to do this has frequently been the cause of inexperienced housewives' ill success when canning tomatoes. Also run the dull edge of a knife blade carefully around the top of jar, pressing down the outer edge and causing it to fit more closely. Aunt Sarah seldom lost a jar of canned tomatoes, and they were as fine flavored as if freshly picked from the vines. She was very particular about using only new tops and rubbers for her jars when canning tomatoes. If the wise housewife takes these precautions, her canned tomatoes should keep indefinitely. Aunt Sarah allowed her jars of tomatoes to stand until the day following that on which the tomatoes were canned, to be positively sure they were cold, before giving the tops a final turn. Stand away in a dark closet.
EUCHERED PEACHES
Twelve pounds of pared peaches (do not remove pits), 6 pounds of sugar and 1 gill of vinegar boiled together a few minutes, drop peaches into this syrup and cook until heated through, when place peaches in air-tight jars, pour hot syrup over and seal.
AUNT SARAH'S METHOD OF CANNING CORN
Three quarts of sweet corn cut from the cob, 1 cup of sugar ¾ cup of salt and 1 pint of cold water. Place these ingredients together in a large bowl; do this early in the morning and allow to stand until noon of the same day; then place all together in a preserving kettle on the range and cook twenty minutes. Fillglass jars which have been sterilized. The work of filling should be done as expeditiously as possible; be particular to have jar-tops screwed on tightly. When jars have become cool give tops another turn, to be positive they are air-tight before putting away for the Winter. When preparing this canned corn for the table, drain all liquid from the corn when taken from the can, pour cold water over and allow to stand a short time on the range until luke-warm. Drain and if nottoosalt, add a small quantity of fresh water, cook a few minutes, season with butter, add a couple tablespoonfuls of sweet milk; serve when hot. This canned corn possesses the flavor of corn freshly cut from the cob. Sarah Landis had used this recipe for years and 'twas seldom she lost a can.
DRIED SWEET CORN
In season when ears of sweet corn are at their best for cooking purposes, boil double the quantity necessary for one meal, cut off kernels and carefully scrape remaining pulp from cob. Spread on agate pans, place in a hot oven a short time (watch closely) and allow it to remain in a cooled oven over night to dry. When perfectly dry place in bags for use later in the season.
When the housewife wishes to prepare dried corn for the table, one cup of the dried corn should be covered with cold water and allowed to stand until the following day, when place in a stew-pan on the range and simmer slowly several hours; add ½ teaspoonful of sugar, 1 tablespoonful of butter, salt and pepper. This corn Aunt Sarah considered sweeter and more wholesome than canned corn and she said "No preservatives were used in keeping it."
When chestnuts were gathered in the fall of the year, at the farm, they were shelled as soon as gathered, then dried and stored away for use in the Winter. Aunt Sarah frequently cooked together an equal amount of chestnuts and dried corn; the combination was excellent. The chestnuts were soaked in cold water over night.
The brown skin of the chestnuts may be readily removed after being covered with boiling water a short time.