332. The Cellar As A Storage Place

The aim in holding, vegetables and fruits is to maintain them in a fresh, crisp condition by preventing the evaporation of water from their tissues and also to defend them against the attacks of destructive forms of germ life. Here again we see the importance of cleanliness, the right temperature, and varying moisture conditions according to the kind of material.

The cellar is the usual storage place for vegetables and fruits. The first consideration is that it be properly built and drained, so that undue moisture may be avoided. This means a dry location, if possible, good cement walls, and effective drainage. As the cellar generally contains the heating apparatus, the portions used for food storage should be separated from the furnace and fuel room by well-built partitions.

The storage space should be well ventilated and in the main well lighted. An annual whitewashing is an effective method of cleansing the walls and ceiling.

For most fruits and vegetables the lower the temperature at which they are held, above freezing of course, the more completely are they defended against molds and rots and the better they retain their tissue water. If a cellar is quite dry, roots like carrots, parsnips, and turnips should be packed in earth and sand. Celery should be treated in the same way with the heads up. Fruits should be treated with especial care. Not only should they be kept cool, but all diseased and imperfect specimens should be culled out. Small lots of choice fruit, apples and pears, are held much longer when the individual fruits are wrapped in paper. Fruits thus separated are much less likely to decay, and evaporation of moisture is somewhat retarded. Cabbage may be packed in barrels or boxes. Potatoes keep best in a cool, dry, dark bin. Pumpkins and squashes are stored most successfully on shelves either in the cellar or in upstairs closets, where it is dry and warm. A dry and well-ventilated cellar may be used as a place for storing cured meats (smoked), which are best held in thin bags hung from the ceiling.

333. Canning And Preserving

The preservation of food materials by canning and preserving is effected in two general ways: (1) by the application of boiling heat for a sufficient length of time to kill all germ life with the subsequent sealing of the cooked material in air-tight vessels, and (2) by the introduction of some substance like sugar or certain chemical preservatives that render the vegetable or fruit immune to the attacks of germ life.

The home canning of some vegetables, for instance tomatoes, is successfully accomplished with no great difficulty by the mere application of heat. The operation with green corn and peas is more precarious, the difficulty being by home methods to render these sterile without carrying the cooking process so far as to injure their flavor. There has existed a tendency to remedy the defects of the home canning of vegetables by the use of some one of the chemical preservatives such as benzoic acid and its compounds, but this practice is not to be commended. As before stated, it is a debatable question whether the continued use of such substances in food is not ultimately injurious to health.

In the preserving of fruits where the sterilization is not affected by heat, sugar is used in sufficient proportions to prevent fermentation.