t. If using screw-top jars screw each
cover down until it catches, then turn a quarter of a round back; or
screw down with the thumb and little finger, not using force but
stopping when the cover catches.

If using vacuum-seal jars put the cover on and the spring in place.
The spring will give enough to allow the steam to escape.

If using glass-top jars, with the patent wire snap, put the cover in
place, the wire over the top and the clamp up.

The cover on a glass jar must not be tight while processing, 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.

When canning in tin we cap and tip the cans at once. The tin will
bulge out, but is strong enough to withstand the pressure, and when
the contents cool the can will come back into shape.

The jars are now ready for the canner. Tomatoes sterilized under
boiling water require twenty-two minutes; in condensed-steam cooker,
twenty-two minutes; in water-seal, eighteen minutes; in
steam-pressure, with five pounds, fifteen minutes, and in the pressure
cooker, at ten or fifteen pounds, ten minutes.

If you use the homemade outfit or any water-bath outfit be sure the
water is boiling when the jars of tomatoes are lowered into the
canner. Time lost in bringing the contents to the point of
sterilization softens the tomatoes and results in inferior goods. Use
the ordinary good sense with which you have been endowed in handling
the jars and you will have no breakage. At the end of the sterilizing
period, remove the jars.

In taking canned goods from boiling hot water, care is needed to see
that they are protected from drafts. If necessary close the windows
and doors while lifting the jars out, for a sudden draft might break
them.

Examine rubbers to see that they are in place. Sometimes, if the
covers are screwed down too tight, the pressure of the steam from the
inside causes the rubber to bulge out. Simply loosen the cover a
thread or two, push the rubber back into place and then tighten. In
case the rubber does not seem to fit well or seems to be a poor
rubber, it should be replaced by a new one and the jar returned to the
cooker for five minutes.

The jars should be sealed tight--covers screwed down, clamps put in
place--immediately after they are removed from the cooker.

Invert to test the joint and cool. If the seal is not perfect, correct
the fault,