Bell jar

“ We know we are going to get a quart of berries into every pint jar, so we know just how many quarts of berries we will need to fill the necessary jars for the next winter's use.
The first thing to do is to test each jar to see that there are no cracks, no rough edges to cut the rubber, and to see whether the cover and clamp fit tightly, if a clamp type of jar is used. The bail that clamps down the glass tops should go down with a good spring. ”

“ GLASS JARS.--For household canning, the most acceptable containers for food are glass jars that may be closed air-tight with jar rubbers and tops. Use is sometimes made of bottles, jars, and cans of various kinds that happen to be at hand, but never should they be employed unless they can be fitted with covers and made positively air-tight. Like utensils, the glass jars that are a part of the household supply should be used from year to year, if possible, but not at the loss of material. ”

“ Tops for Economy jars must be purchased new each year.
Small necked bottles can be used for holding fruit juices. Large mouthed bottles can be used for jams, marmalades and jellies.
Tests for Jars and Rubbers
Jars should be tested before they are used. Some of the important tests are here given:
Glass-top Jars.—Fit top to jar. If top rocks when tapped it should not be used on that jar. The top bail should not be too tight nor too loose. If either too tight or too loose the bail should be taken off and bent until it goes into place with a light snap. ”

“ Fill the jars to within 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 inch of tops. (In canning berries, to insure a close pack, put a 2 or 3 inch layer of berries on the bottom of the jar and press down gently with a wooden spoon. Continue in this manner with other layers until jar is filled. Fruits cut in half should be arranged with pit surface down.)
9. Add salt and boiling water to vegetables to cover them. To fruits add hot syrup or water.
10. Place wet rubber and top on jar.
11. With a bail-top jar adjust top bail only, leaving lower bail or snap, free. ”

“ Adelaide then filled the sterilized jar with the fruit, inserted a silver knife between the grapes and the jar to let the air bubbles rise to the top and break, fitted on a new rubber smoothly, sealed the jar quickly and stood it upside down out of the way of any draft. In the morning she inspected the jar carefully to be sure that it did not leak, wiped off all stickiness with a damp cloth, pasted on the label and stored the jar away in the preserve closet. ”

“ Then he put the jar and the spoon back, laid the lid on the box and put it back in the chest. After that he went to the window and stood there looking out, and seemed to be very much amused with what he saw. That was all.
“Hints for me,” I remember thinking. “Perhaps it will be best not to touch the box before the moon is up to-night, and always with washed hands.” ”

“ Here, for a while, we were left to ourselves; the old man placing the light in the jar, and then disappearing. He returned, carrying a long, large bamboo, and a crotched stick. Throwing these down, he poked under a pile of rubbish, and brought out a rough block of wood, pierced through and through with a hole, which was immediately clapped on the top of the jar. ”

“ To be where the sun is the only time-piece by day and the Dipper by night, and where no form of trade is nearer than nineteen miles, unless one undertakes to transport the delicate pottery of the women, is certainly a unique experience. Through the day we watched at intervals the marvelously deft and steady fingers of our hostess as she outlined elaborate designs upon some large jars, no two being the same, never hesitating for an instant whether it were the hair-line in parallels on the lip, or the curve of a bird’s wing on the rounded surface, of the jar. ”

“ MERCHANT. What is this? Gold pieces! As I live! Gold! gold!
[He shakes the jar again; a shower of gold pieces fall.]
MERCHANT (dropping the jar in astonishment) . A thousand pieces at least! The top of the jar only was laid with olives!
(He puts the gold into his pockets.)
To-night, when my wife is asleep, I will fill the jar entirely with fresh olives, for these show they have been disturbed. And I will make up the jar so that no one, except Ali Cogia himself, will know they have been touched. ”

“ If stone jars are used, those with narrow mouths are best, as the air is most easily excluded from them; and small sized ones, containing only enough for once or twice, are best, as the frequent opening of a large jar, injures its entire contents, by the repeated admission of the air. ”

“ The jar is again emptied, and submitted to the inspection of the spectators. He asks you to fill it to the brim; after which he reverses it: not a drop of water flows, and yet when you look into it, it is perfectly empty. At last the conjuror breaks the jar by way of a practical demonstration of the fact that it is made of common earthenware.
A large basket is produced: the conjuror raises it, and a Pariah dog appears crouching on the ground. ”

“ For I said within myself, 'There is no man who does not desire to get as much as he can for his money, therefore, from its contrast with these others, my jar is safe.' And it was even so; for truly, many have desired to buy the jar because of the delicate beauty of the flowers, if I would have sold it for less than others which seemed more valuable. ”

“ I see many little girls at the fountain of Mary, each with a jar in which to bring water home. This is the work of almost every woman in the land. The little ones are taught by beginning with a tiny jar which they steady on the head with the hand. As they grow older they use larger jars, until at last they are able to walk through the streets carrying four or five gallons of water on the head without touching the jar. ”

“ For home use glass jars are more satisfactory for canning. Glass jars properly cared for will last for years. All types of jars which seal readily may be used. Jars having glass tops held in place by bails are especially easy to handle while they are hot. ”

“ In glass jars.—Pack hot blackeye peas to 11⁄4 inches of top of pint jars and 11⁄2 inches of top of quart jars; do not shake or press peas down. Add 1⁄2 teaspoon salt to pints; 1 teaspoon to quarts. Cover with boiling water, leaving 1⁄2-inch space at top of jar. Adjust jar lids. Process in pressure canner at 10 pounds pressure (240° F.) —
As soon as you remove jars from canner, complete seals if necessary. ”

“ Now stretch a piece of thin rubber, such as toy balloons are made of, across the mouth of the jar, and tie it down, as seen in the illustration.
To make the imps dance, one has only to press upon the rubber top, as the air, in the top of the jar, is thus forced downward, the water is driven up into the small bottles, compressing the tiny quantity of air they contain, 109and they, in consequence, fall lower in the jar; but when the pressure is removed, the air in them expands, and they instantly rise to their normal position again. ”

“ We take a tall and narrow glass jar and fill it so completely with alcohol that the addition of a single drop will endanger an overflow. The jar appears to be full of a perfectly homogeneous liquor. But if a sheet of cotton wool, whose fibers have been previously well loosened, be at hand, fragment after fragment may, with care, be slowly introduced, without causing the overflow of a single drop, until the jar appears to be filled with moistened cotton instead of with alcohol. We have before us the surprising appearance of two bodies filling the same space at the same moment. ”

“ In the morning, put the peaches into glass jars, which should be all of the same size, and fill them up with the brandy syrup; allowing an equal portion to each jar. Cover the jars closely, and paste white paper over their tops.
BRANDY GREEN GAGES.—Take the largest and finest green gages, quite ripe. Prick every one with a needle in several places. Spread fresh grape-leaves over the bottom, and round the sides of a preserving kettle. Put in a layer of green gages and a layer of grape-vine leaves, alternately, adding to each layer a bit of alum but little larger than a grain of indian corn. ”

“ While the majority belong to the black-and-white group, the red ware decorated with black figures is found but comparatively rarely, which is also true of the pottery of the cliff-dwellers. In the large variety of forms of burnt clay objects, the most remarkable in shape is a double water jar, connected by a transverse tube, the ends of which project beyond the opening into the jar, much in the form of an animal with a head at one end, body elongated, terminating in a short tail, the legs not being represented. ”

“ The cover on a glass jar must not be tight while the product is cooking, because the air will expand when heated, and if the cover is not loose enough to allow the steam to escape the pressure may blow the rubber out or break the jar. ”

“ Many improvements, of course, have been made in detail of form, in ventilation, the supplying and regulating of heat and the moving of trays.
The hermetically sealed glass or earthenware fruit jar, the lids of which can be screwed or locked down upon a rubber band, after the jar is filled and the small remainder of air drawn out by a convenient steam heater, now used by the million, is an illustration of the many useful modern contrivances in this line. ”

“ They had a wooden jar with them, wound round with straw, out of which one and the other took long draughts. The red one invited my father to try their wine. He did; and his experience was worse than that of Clements with the linseed-oil: the jar contained that hellish stuff, brandy.
The wood-cutters now feasted in our house day after day. We children lost all liking for our daily food, at the sight of luxury and abundance. We became discontented; and our household, consisting of two half-grown servant-girls and a half-blind woman, heaved many a deep sigh. But the red one knew how to amuse us. ”

“ Cork the jar with a waxed cork, cover the upper-most end of the cork, and the edges of the mouth of the jar, with wax also, and [94] place it six weeks, or two months, in a vault, or some other cool place. At the expiration of this period, open the jar; if it exhales a strong vinous smell, the fermentation has arrived at its proper height ”

“ The next day cork the jars, and either brush melted rosin over the corks, or tie a piece of moistened bladder tightly over each.
Medlar Jelly.—Fill a large jar with ripe medlars, and place it in a saucepan of boiling water; it must be large enough to allow of the water coming up to the neck of the jar, but care must be taken not to let any of the water go into it. The jar must be uncovered. Put the lid on the saucepan, and keep the water boiling until the medlars are thoroughly cooked and quite soft. Then put them into a linen jelly-bag, and let them drip into a basin ”

“ Pack in jars. To fruits add syrup; to vegetables add hot water and salt. Adjust rubbers and covers. Partially tighten covers. Sterilize or “process” product required length of time. Remove jar from boiling water. Tighten cover of jar. Invert jar to cool. Explanation of Steps in the Cold Pack Process Grading. Fruit and vegetables should be fresh, free from decay, and as nearly uniform in shape and state of ripeness as is possible. Wilted fruits or vegetables cannot be guaranteed to keep. Use imperfect fruit for jams. Can vegetables as soon as picked and fruit the same day as picked. ”

“ The tenant's wife wanted me to put it in a pasteboard box, but I stubbornly insisted on having the jar, why, I do not know, but I suppose it was because my father's word was gospel to me, and he had said that the best place to keep my specimens was the cellar window, and I must have thought the jar the nearest equivalent to the cellar. ”

“ The open lid cast a shadow over the inside of the casing. All she saw at first was what she had seen already—the jar, and the pipe and glass funnel inserted in the cork. She removed the funnel; and, looking about her, observed on the window-sill close by a wax-tipped wand used for lighting the gas. She took the wand, and, introducing it through the aperture occupied by the funnel, moved it to and fro in the jar. The faint splash of some liquid, and the grating noise of certain hard substances which she was stirring about, were the two sounds that caught her ear. ”

“ Let them cool rapidly but be sure that no draft reaches them as a draft will cause breakage. (If there is any doubt that a bail-top jar is perfectly sealed a simple test may be made by loosening the top bail and lifting the jar by taking hold of the top with the fingers. The internal suction should hold the top tightly in place when thus lifted. If the top comes off put on a new wet rubber and sterilize 15 minutes longer for fruits.) With screw-top jars try the tops while the jars are cooling, or as soon as they [163] have cooled, and, if loose, tighten them by screwing on more closely. ”

“ Fortnum and Mason in Piccadilly, we beheld in the window a little blue jar, labelled, “Sicilian Honey.”—It was a jar of very humble pretensions, if estimated according to its price in the market. Perhaps it might have been worth, as a piece of ware, about [Pg 26] threepence; and, contents and all, its price did not exceed eighteenpence. People who condescend to look at nothing but what is costly, and who, being worth a vast deal of money at their bankers’, are not aware that they are poor devils as men, would have infallibly despised it ”