After cooking the fruit, adjust the rubber on the sterilized jar, fill the jar (to overflowing) with the hot fruit and sirup, cover at once, and seal. Invert the can and let it stand until cool.
(b) COLD PACK.—This method is followed by placing the prepared food in a clean, tested, hot jar, covering the food with water or sirup, adjusting the rubber ring and cover to the jar, and processing both the jar and its contents in boiling water or steam.
Before placing the food in the jar, it may be blanched, i.e. subjected to boiling water or steam. After blanching, the food is cold- dipped, i.e. plunged into cold water. After the preliminary steps, such as washing, paring, and cutting into pieces, foods may be blanched and cold-dipped as follows:
Place the food in a cheese-cloth bag or in a wire basket and immerse it in boiling water. Certain fruits are allowed to remain in the water from 1 to 5 minutes (see Table). (The time is dependent upon the kind of fruit.) Then remove the product from the boiling water, dip it immediately in cold water, remove at once, and drain for a few minutes. These two processes are used for large firm fruits. Berries and all soft fruits are canned without blanching and cold-dipping.
Whether the fruit is blanched and cold-dipped or not, place it in hot jars to 1/2 inch of the top. If a sirup is desired, it may be made by using 1/4 to 1 cupful of sugar for each quart jar with from 2 to 3 cupfuls of water. Adjust a new, wet rubber on the jar; fill the jar to 1/4 inch of the top with sirup or with boiling water. Place the cover on the jar, but do not seal it tightly. If a screw top jar is used, screw on the lid by grasping it with the thumb and little finger. If the jar has a bail top, adjust the top bail only,—not the lower bail. Then process the jars and their contents by placing in:
[Illustration: FIGURE 91.—RACK FOR HOLDING JARS. Note that the rack is shaped to fit a wash boiler.]
(1) Kettle or clothes boiler provided with a rack (see Figure 91) or some sort of false bottom such as strips of wood, straw, paper, or wire-netting of one half inch mesh.
(2) Steam cooker (see Figure 18).
(3) Pressure cooker (see Figure 17).
If the kettle or wash boiler is used, rest the jars on the rack in the container, fill the latter with enough hot water so that it extends to a depth of one inch above the covers of the jars. Then boil the water. Count the time of processing when the water begins to boil. Keep the water at boiling temperature for the length of time given in the Table below.