E-text prepared by John Hagerson, Kevin Handy, Stephen Schulze,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
EVERY STEP IN
CANNING
THE COLD-PACK METHOD
BY
GRACE VIALL GRAY, PH.B., ED.B
Formerly Associate Professorof Home Economics, Iowa State College
1920
PREFACE
It was six years ago that I first heard of the One Period,Cold-Pack Method of canning. A little circular was put in my handone day at a federated club meeting announcing the fact that in afew weeks there would be a cold-pack demonstration about fiftymiles away. Immediately I announced that I was going to thedemonstrations. So leaving my small daughter with my mother, I wentto the Normal School at DeKalb, Illinois, and heard and saw for thefirst time cold-pack canning.
It is sufficient to say that those three days were so crowdedfull of interest and new messages on the gospel of canning that Ifelt amply repaid for going fifty miles. As a result of that trip,the first story ever published on cold-pack canning appeared inThe Country Gentleman and I had the pleasure of writing it.So enthused was I over this new, efficient and easy way to can notonly fruits but hard vegetables, such as peas, corn and beans, thatI wanted to carry the good news into the kitchen of other busyhousewives and mothers.
My mother had insisted that I take with me my younger sister,just from college, but with no domestic science tendencies. So,much against her wishes, preferring rather to do some settlementwork, my sister went with me. The canning was so interesting thatfor the first time in her life, my sister became enthusiastic overone phase of cooking. My mother was so pleased at this zeal thatwhen she received my sister's letter written from DeKalb, saying,"Mother, I am enthused about this canning and want to caneverything in sight this summer," she hastily washed all availableglass jars and tops and had everything in readiness for youngdaughter's return. And we canned. We were not content to can alonebut invited all the neighbors in and taught them how to can. Ourcommunity canned more things and more unusual things, including thehard vegetables, that year than they had ever attempted before.
Do not think for one minute it was all easy sailing, for therewere doubting Thomases, but it only took time and results toconvert even the most skeptical ones. And here I must make aconfession. It was much easier for my sister, unversed in any phaseof canning, to master this new method than it was for me with myfour years' training course and my five years of teaching canningbehind me. And this is the reason. She had nothing to "unlearn,"she knew no other method whereas I had to "unlearn" all my previousmethods.
The one period, cold-pack method is so entirely different fromthe old hot pack or open kettle method that to be successful youmust forget all you ever knew and be willing to be taught anew. Andright here is where many women "fall down"—they are notwilling to admit that they know nothing about it and so do not getaccurate information about it. They are so afraid of appearingignorant. This false feeling is the greatest obstacle in woman'sway.
I still go into small towns on my lecture trips and women willsay, "Oh, that cold-pack canning isn't new to me. I have used itfor thirty years." And when I show my surprise, they furtherenlighten me with, "and my mother used it before me, too." With alittle tactful questioning I usually get these answers: "Ofcourse, I do not hot dip and cold dip. I never heard of thatbefore. I pack the products into the col