Canned Strawberries
| Strawberries, | 1 quart |
| Sugar |
Emptying the berries into the colander she dipped it up and down several times in a pan of clear cold water, then let them drain thoroughly. The berries were hulled, weighed, and put into the saucepan, which she placed over the fire, heating the fruit through very gradually. It was better, mother said, to let them stand at the back of the range until the juice began to run, before bringing the berries to the boiling point. These boiled slowly five minutes, and then Adelaide added one-third their weight in sugar. The sugar had been standing in an earthenware dish at the back of the range, to heat through, but not brown.
While Adelaide added the sugar very gradually she stirred the fruit gently with the wooden spoon, and was very careful not to break the berries.
It did not take long for the fruit and sugar to come to the boiling point, and then Adelaide filled to overflowing the sterilized pint jar at once, inserted the silver knife between the jar and fruit to let the air bubbles rise and break, put on the new rubber smoothly, sealed quickly and stood the jar upside down out of the way of any draft.
The next morning she inspected the jar carefully, to be sure it did not leak, then wiped away all stickiness with a damp cloth, pasted on the label and stored it away in the preserve closet.