shades together, but uniform products are more pleasing to the eye and
will sterilize much more evenly. If the products are of the same
ripeness and quality, the entire pack will receive the proper degree
of cooking.

Wash the tomatoes. Have ready a kettle of boiling water. Put the
tomatoes in a wire basket, or lay them on a piece of cheesecloth or a
towel, twist the ends together to form a sack, and let this down into
the kettle. It is a good plan to slip a rubber band round the neck of
this sack to hold the ends in place. The ends should be long enough to
stand up out of the water and so avoid danger of burning the fingers
when removing the product.

Have the water boiling hard. Lower the tomatoes into the boiling
water. This is called scalding the tomatoes. We scald the tomatoes to
loosen the skin. If the tomatoes are very ripe, one minute scalding
will be sufficient. The average length of time for tomatoes, just
perfect for canning, is one and a half minutes. Do not leave the
tomatoes in the hot water until the skins break, as this gives them a
fuzzy appearance.

The scalding kettle always should be covered, to keep in all the heat
possible. Begin to time from the minute the product is immersed in the
boiling water. If you wait until the water comes back to a boil, you
will scald the product too long and have mushy tomatoes.

Lift the tomatoes out of the hot water and plunge them immediately
into cold water, or hold them under the cold-water faucet. The
cold-dip makes them easier to handle, separates the skin from the
pulp, firms the texture, and coagulates the coloring matter so it