When we use the term sterilizing we simply mean cooking the product for a certain period of time after the jar has been filled with food.  It is sometimes called processing.  Sterilizing, processing, boiling and cooking are all interchangeable terms and mean one and the same thing.

By this “cold-pack,” or cold-fill, method of canning, all food products, including fruits, vegetables and meats, can be successfully sterilized in a single period with but one handling of the product in and out of the canner.

All the flavor is retained, the product is not cooked to a mushy pulp, and the labor and time needed for the canning are less than in any other method.  The housewife’s canning enemy, mold, is eliminated and all bacteria and bacterial spores which cause vegetables and meat to spoil are destroyed.

EXPENSIVE OUTFITS NOT ESSENTIAL

For this “cold-pack” method you can use whatever equipment you have in the kitchen.  Complicated equipment is not essential.  Many of us have purchased commercial outfits, for we know we can turn out more at the end of a day and have found it well worth while to invest a few dollars in equipment that enabled us to be more efficient.  But if you are a beginner and do not care to put any money in an unknown venture use the available things at hand, just to prove to yourself and others that it can be done.

Every type of glass jar manufactured can be used except those which are sealed with wax.  So dig into your storerooms, attics and basements and bring forth all your old jars.  If a top is in good condition and will make a perfect seal when adjusted with a good rubber you can use that jar.

If the tops cannot be restored to good condition it is poor economy to use them.  Imperfectly sealed jars are probably responsible for more spoiled canned goods than any other cause.  Good tops and good rubbers are requisites for good canning.

For your canner, or sterilizer, you may use a wash boiler or a galvanized bucket, such as is used for a garbage pail—­a new one, of course.  Either is excellent where the family is small and the canning is accordingly light.  Some use the reservoir of the cookstove while others employ a large vat.  If you should have to buy the wash boiler or pail see that it has a tight-fitting cover and be sure the pail does not leak.  Then all you have to do is to secure what we call a false bottom, something that will keep the jars of fruit from touching the direct bottom of the boiler or pail.  This false bottom, remember, is absolutely necessary, for without it the jars will break during the boiling.

For this false bottom use a wire netting of half-inch mesh and cut it to fit the bottom of the sterilizer, whether boiler, pail or bucket.  If you haven’t any netting and do not care to purchase it a wooden bottom can be made to fit the sterilizer, or if that is not available put thin pieces of wood in the bottom—­anything to keep the jars from coming in direct contact with the bottom of the sterilizer.