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Don't Cook That

To Can Corn (soldered tins)

Raw corn in tin cans the cook solders shut herself, boiled at the temperature of water.

From
The Dixie Cook-Book
Published
1883
Yikes Scale
Call poison control

Exactly as printed, 1883

GUMBO FILLET. - Joint and dredge well with flour a full grown chicken; put in a pot with sufficient lard to fry it, adding a sliced onion. Be careful not to burn it. When fried, add two quarts of boiling water, a slice of ham trimmed free from the coarse fat, salt, black and red pepper, a few cloves and grains of allspice if liked; stew until soup is rich with pieces of chicken; turn into tureen and add one tablespoon of fillet if fresh, two if not fresh; stir well to avoid lumping, and do not cover after adding fillet; add as many oysters as you please; they must previously be cooked, but not more than five minutes. The soup is best made by adding liquor of one quart of oysters to two quarts boiling water. Fillet is pulverized sassafras leaves dried and sifted; can be made at home readily. - Mrs. S., La. TO CAN CORN.-Put the corn raw into tin cans, then fill with cold water even with the top of the corn; solder up the can, pricking a small hole in the cover. Solder that also. Boil the cans and contents in boiling water two and a half hours; then with a hot iron open the small hole and let the gas blow out, after which solder up and boil again two and a half hours and set away for use. Peas, string beans and Lima beans can be put up in the same way.

SWEET POTATOES. - Boil or stew large potatoes until nearly done; take out, peel and slice, not quite half an inch thick. Put in baking pan with very little water; sprinkle thickly with white sugar and spread each slice with butter; brown in oven. Carolina style and a favorite dish all over the South.-Mrs. Eckford, Atlanta, Ga.


The Dixie Cook-Book, 1883. Public domain; transcription unaltered.

So what happens if I make it?

Corn is low-acid, and Clostridium botulinum spores survive boiling water indefinitely. They need around 240°F, which only a pressure canner reaches, and a wash boiler tops out at 212°F.

The solder is the second problem stacked on the first. Period solder was lead-based, applied by hand, directly onto the seam of a container of food that will then sit for months.

Notes from the 21st century

  • Home canning of corn needs pressure. It is the single most-warned-about low-acid vegetable in modern canning guidance, and this is exactly why.
  • Botulinum toxin gives no warning. The jar need not bulge, smell or taste wrong. That is what makes the method so dangerous rather than merely unreliable.
  • Commercial canning solved it with retorts. Industrial canneries used pressurised retorts from the late nineteenth century. The home cook was told to use a boiler.

Also in this book

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