Advice on safe canning.

In a recent issue a reader wrote of the difficulties of keeping meat for the winter, and mentioned canning it. She said she wanted to buy the huge canner from Lehman's Hardware that covers two stove burners because it "would make the job go faster."

The huge canner from Lehman's is a water bath canner. It cannot be used for meats, starches, vegetables or any other low-acid food. It can be used safely only for high-acid fruits, pickles, relishes and high-sugar jams, jellies and preserves. All low-acid foods must go in a steam pressure canner at 240 [degrees] F and at least 10 pounds of pressure (more at higher altitudes) on a gauge checked every year at the Agriculture Extension office.

There is no safe way to can meat or other low-acid foods in a water-bath canner. Never use a pressure saucepan, microwave canning, dishwater canning, or a water bath canner less than 13 inches deep. Most aluminum crab pots (20-quart size) or blue speckled enamel "canners" are too shallow.

Also avoid the widely distributed "steam canner" in which bottles are placed on a rack on top of a shallow pan full of boiling water covered with a deep domed lid whose edge is at the level of the bottoms of the jars and cooked in unpressurized steam. Some people call this method "steam canning", but is really hot water vapor canning. It is not an adequate substitute for water bath canning or for steam pressure canning.

Don't use any of the weird methods like oven canning, putting an aspirin in each jar, or inverting freshly filled jars of hot preserves to kill the bacteria on the bottom of the lid. This last method breaks the seal you carefully made, and it isn't hot enough to kill the bacteria. However, it is hot enough to burn your hand.

Leave your jelly glasses upright and process them for the required time in a water bath canner. Pouring hot food into a waiting jar, putting the lid on and putting the jar away isn't recommended either. All home-canned foods must be prepared with a water bath or steam pressure canner as appropriate.

I don't recommend sealing jars with wax or using old-fashioned canning jars. Use two-piece metal lids with the rubber sealing ring glued onto the upper lid. Don't use zinc caps, two-piece glass lids or lightning-type glass jars. They're not safe.

Get your canning directions either from the latest edition of the Ball Blue Book or the USDA canning book which has been published by Dover Books. The canning advice in the homesteading classic Stocking Up II is getting out of date. For safety. use the Department of Agriculture's procedures. You may use other recipes, but get your canning times and methods from the USDA book.

Don't change or amend recipes unless you know what those changes will do to the processing method. For example, adding even a small amount of vegetables to canned tomatoes means you'll have to use a pressure canner. It's okay to can tomatoes in a water bath canner if you add two tablespoons of bottled lemon juice per quart. Don't use fresh lemon juice unless you know its acidity. Using more lemon juice of unknown acidity isn't good enough. If you can't use lemon juice of correct acidity, put your tomatoes in a pressure canner.

Lehman's water bath canner is excellent. It's a stainless steel rectangular box with handles, lid and rack. It costs $125, and it will hold 15 quart jars, more smaller jars, or 48 quarts of soup. It can be used on a wood stove or gas or electric range. This is an excellent utensil for canning large quantities of high-acid fruits and high-sugar preserves.

Lehman's and your local farm supply store sell good quality steam pressure canners. They are also available at some hardware and discount stores. Get the largest size available, which holds 22 quarts of soup or seven quarts of home-canned food. While half gallons of fruit juice are sometimes canned, that is too large a size for food, since the heat doesn't penetrate all the way to the middle, leaving some of the contents unsterilized. Some canning books list processing times for foods in half-gallon jars, but stick with quart or pint jars. Some dense foods such as pureed squash and pumpkin pie filling must be canned in small jars only.

Relishes and mixed vegetables without a high acid content must be canned in small jars, even in a steam pressure cooker. The old method of putting sliced cucumbers and spices in a jar, then pouring boiling vinegar, water and salt on them is no longer recommended.

You may still pack your pickles that way, but boil the pickles in a water bath canner for the required time after they are sealed.

Incidentally, a steam pressure canner can be used for water bath canning if it's deep enough. Thirteen inches is sufficient. Just don't pressurize it. The largest steam pressure canner now available will cover only one stove burner. Make sure that your canner(s) are used properly and are in good working order.

In my opinion, canners with the weight and the pressure gauge are better than the kind with the "rocker" weight that rattles to indicate the pressure and doesn't have a separate pressure gauge. I wasn't able to get a rocker weight canner to work properly, so I went back to the other kind.

Instead of buying new canners, I have been rehabbing old ones. Remember that Presto still has parts for even its 50-year-old canners, while other brands generally don't. I bought a Magic Seal canner from an old lady. This is the canner shown in the harvest kitchen drawing as well as The Have More Plan.

The Magic Seal is so old that it has wooden handles instead of bakelite, so I guess it was made in the 1920s or '30s. It was in excellent condition, but the gasket was old. A replacement was unavailable, but I went to an auto parts store and got a gasket making kit. It consists of a sheet of rubber material, a pattern for tracing the original gasket and instructions. Many older cars need gaskets that are no longer manufactured, so that's why I was able to find the kit in an auto parts store.

All pressure canners and cookers (except for a few modern ones with a precise metal-to-metal fit) need a gasket. A gasket can easily be replaced when it wears out. I worry that the gasketless seal on a modern aluminum canner will become scratched, bent or otherwise unusable and unrepairable.

My next steam pressure canner came from a junkyard for $10. The place had several acres of car parts and an acre of other things, including household items. It was an old Presto Model 7, made about 1940, with no weight and an aged gasket. I knew I could get parts for it. I bought a new gasket, pressure plug and weight for $22.97 at the local appliance store. After a good bath and repairs, the old machine is equal to a new $150 pressure canner. It will only take quarts and smaller jars, but half gallons aren't recommended anyway.

Feedback on baking powder

Countryside: In 82/5, you told T.F. from Hawaii that you couldn't help him stay out of the store for ingredients to make baking powder. Back in the '30s, many "poverty" housewives screened corn cob ashes from the cookstove and substituted it measure for measure for baking powder. I'm sure it isn't the quality of Calumet or Clabber Girl, but it does work after a fashion if nothing else is available.

Let's hope times don't get that bad again, but it doesn't hurt to have the knowledge just in case! Isn't that what Countryside is all about? Keep the information coming. Charles Turner, 1424 240th St., Redfield, IA 50233

Baking powder

Countryside: The simple recipe for an aluminum-free baking powder calls for mixing two parts of cream of tartar with one part of baking soda and cornstarch in a medium to large bowl. Blend thoroughly before storing in an airtight container.

If you like, arrowroot may be substituted for cornstarch. B. Roop, 19 1st Ave. S.E. #4, Minot, ND 58701

Everlasting yeast

Countryside: My code word is "a thrifty cook", because that is what I am. Here is my recipe for Everlasting Yeast:

1 quart warm potato water
1/2 yeast cake or  1/2 tablespoon
dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2 cups white or whole wheat flour

Stir all ingredients together. Place mixture in a warm place to rise until ready to mix for baking. Leave a small amount of everlasting yeast for a starter next time.

Keep covered in the refrigerator until several hours before it is to be used.

Add the same ingredients except yeast to the everlasting yeast starter for the next baking. By keeping the everlasting yeast starter around and remaking it each time, yeast can be kept on hand indefinitely.-Judy Way, N6808 Cork Rd., Phillips, WI 54555

Potato yeast

Countryside: In reference to your yeast making in 82/5, I believe the "seed" you're referring to is hops. (Ed. note: No, the seed referred to is airborne yeast that multiplies.) My husband says his mother used hops in making her own yeast.

He didn't remember what all the ingredients were, but she did use corn-meal and flour and made it into somewhat of a cornbread. It was then dried, cut in squares and stored in an empty oatmeal box with a lid for future bread making.

The following is a recipe given to me by my husband's aunt. She has been deceased for several years, so I can't get any more information on it.

Yeast starter

4 large mealy potatoes
2 quarts cold water
1 cup loose dry hops
2 tablespoons white sugar
4 tablespoons flour
1 yeast cake dissolved in 1/4 cup
warm water

Tie hops in a piece of coarse muslin. Place in kettle with potatoes and water. Cook until potatoes fall apart when pureed with a fork. Remove potatoes and simmer slowly. Mash potatoes and work in sugar. When smooth, add three tablespoons of boiling hop tea. Stir in one tablespoon of flour. Repeat four times, beating and stirring each time to remove lumps.

Stir in the rest of the tea and squeeze the bag. Strain liquid into a bowl and let cool to lukewarm. Stir in dissolved yeast, cover and set aside to "work." When it ceases to sing, his sand bubble, the fermentation is complete. This will take four to five hours in hot weather, about seven hours in cold weather.

Pour into jars and seal. Keep in a cool place. Open only when needed and shake well each time. Will keep one month in refrigerator. Half a cup of starter will make three loaves of bread with 10 to 12 cups of flour.

We purchased some hop seed from Gurney's, 110 Capitol St., Yankton, SD 57079. This is a vine, and the hops resemble Chinese lantern flowers. We grew them, but when we decided to move the hops to a different location, we lost them.

I haven't tried the recipe yet, but Aunt Emma was a great cook, and I have no reason to doubt that it will work. Too many skills have become a lost art. I feel that we should keep as many skills as possible. -- Evelyn Eickmeyer, RR1, Box 72A, Eldred, IL 62027

When the singing cake doesn't

Countryside: I have received two letters so far from disappointed gals who tried the " Singing Cake ", and it didn't sing. (82/3:52) I should have made some points clear in the recipe. My fault, sorry to everyone!

First of all, make sure your baking powder is fresh, and I mean you just bought it yesterday from a grocer that doesn't keep stuff on his shelves for a hundred years.

Next, beat the egg whites to stiff before you mix up the other ingredients. Time is a very element here.

Last, make sure the flour is sifted, and it also is very fresh.

Now I am wondering if altitude has anything to do with this. The two gals who tried the cake and wrote me are from Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. If they have to add any ingredient to make their cakes rise normally, then they should add it to this cake, too.

Humidity I know can be a factor. Don't make this cake on a rainy day, or when a front is about to come through.

The only other thing I can think of is that they are overdoing it with cinnamon. Cinnamon is a killer to yeast breads, or to any recipe that requires some type of "reaction" between its ingredients. -- Jacque Schwenke, 4810 N Mueller, Bethany OK 73008

Favorite recipes from Florida

Naomi Livingston
4961 SW 181st Court
Dunnellon, Florida 34432

     Green tomato mincemeat

3 pounds chopped green tomatoes
3 pounds apples
2 pounds raisins
8 cups brown sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1 cup suet, chopped
1 cup vinegar
2 tablespoons cinnamon
2 tablespoons cloves
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Chop and drain tomatoes. Measure the liquid and discard it. Add an equal amount of water to pulp. Scald and drain again. Repeat this twice, adding fresh water each time. Add rest, cook until thick. Seal in jars.

Mincemeat cookies

1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 well-beaten eggs
3 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda
1 cup canned mincemeat or one
9-ounce package with 3 tablespoons
of water

Drop on greased cookie sheet, bake at 350 [degrees] for 10 to 15 minutes. Makes four dozen.

Switchel

During the Depression, my mother made switchel and haymaker's switchel:

1 gallon water
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup dark molasses
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
2 teaspoons ground ginger

     Haymaker's switchel

2 quarts water
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup vinegar
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 cup molasses
Mix and refrigerate.

     Corn and potato chowder

2 tablespoons butter
1 cup chopped onion
Cook until tender

Add:
2 cups diced potatoes
2 cups water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 cups fresh or canned corn
1 13-ounce can evaporated milk
Paprika
1/2 cup cooked ham, chopped

Mix together and stir in at end:
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup water

     Clam soup for a crowd

1/2 pound margarine
3 pounds onions
1 bunch celery
5 pounds potatoes
2 to 21/2 cans tomatoes
1 large can V-8 juice
1 bottle French dressing
Salt and pepper to taste
8 dozen minced clams with juice

Add enough water to margarine, onions, celery and potatoes so they will not burn. Add tomatoes, V-8, French dressing, salt and pepper; simmer. Add clams and simmer. Add clam juice and simmer.

Potato pancakes

5 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 pounds raw white potatoes,
pared
1 small onion, peeled and grated
1 egg, unbeaten
1 tablespoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Lightly grease medium skillet. Drop heaping tablespoons of mixture onto hot skillet. Drain on brown paper, serve with applesauce. Goes well with pot roast or other main dishes.