will be
insipid and mushy; and though cooking will soften hard fruit, it cannot
impart to it the delicate flavors which belong to that which is in its
prime. The larger varieties of fruit should not be quite soft enough for
eating. Choose a dry day for gathering, and put up at once, handling as
little as possible. Try to keep it clean enough to avoid washing. If the
fruit is to be pared, use a silver knife for the purpose, as steel is
apt to discolor the fruit. If the fruit is one needing to be divided or
stoned, it will be less likely to become broken if divided before
paring.

Cook the fruit slowly in a porcelain-lined or granite-ware kettle, using
as little water as possible. It is better to cook only small quantities
at a time in one kettle. Steaming in the cans is preferable to stewing,
where the fruit is at all soft. To do this, carefully fill the cans with
fresh fruit, packing it quite closely, if the fruit is large, and set
the cans in a boiler partly filled with cold water, with something
underneath them to prevent breaking,--muffin rings, straw, or thick
cloth, or anything to keep them from resting on the bottom of the boiler
(a rack made by nailing together strips of lath is very convenient);
screw the covers on the cans so the water cannot boil into them, but not
so tightly as to prevent the escape of steam; heat the water to boiling,
and steam the fruit until tender. Peaches, pears, crab apples, etc., to
be canned with a syrup, may be advantageously cooked by placing on a
napkin dropped into the boiling syrup.

Fruit for canning should be so thoroughly cooked that every portion of
it will have been subjected to a sufficient degree of heat to destroy
all germs within the fruit, but overcooking should be avoided. The
length of time required for cooking fruits for canning, varies with the
kind and quality of fruit and the manner of cooking. Fruit is more
frequently spoiled by being cooked an insufficient length of time, than
by overcooking. Prolonged cooking at a boiling temperature is necessary
for the destruction of certain kinds of germs capable of inducing
fermentation. Fifteen minutes may be considered as the shortest time for
which even the most delicate fruits should be subjected to the
temperature of boiling water, and thirty minutes will be required by
most fruits. Fruits which are not perfectly fresh, or which have been
shipped some distance, should be cooked not less than thirty minutes.
The boili