The preserving kettle and the rest of the list of tools can be used for preserving. For cooling, enamel or aluminum trays are the best. Fruits will discolor tin. When jars are full, as mentioned before, slip a paddle, silver knife (silver doesn’t discolor fruit) or spatula through the fruit next to the container when packed to remove air bubbles. ALUMINUM UTENSILS Aluminum is light and enduring and contrary to allegations, cooking acids in aluminum utensils does no harm whatever. In fact, if any chemical action should take place, it does in the aluminum, and not in the food. Chemists use it to cook acids in sometimes which is a proof of the hardness of it in cooking fruit acids. If compounds were formed with aluminum, they are entirely harmless and have no more effect than any of the organic salts. Salts solutions can be cooked in aluminum, but don’t store a concentrated brine as pickling mixtures in aluminum, or the aluminum may become pitted. To clean aluminum never use a strong alkali. Steel wool is the best cleanser on the market at present. If when a utensil is washed any slight stains or discoloration on the inside are immediately removed with some steel wool and a mild soap, it will be kept in a bright and shiny condition all the time. Oxalic acid is often recommended as one means of removing the discoloration from aluminum, as it unites so readily with the iron or mineral deposit which sometimes forms on the aluminum from the action of hard water. This, however, we do not generally recommend as it is not a safe plan to have it around. ENAMEL WARE Enamel ware has a steel basis coated with porcelain. Probably no cooking utensil has so long and classic an inheritance, for enamel on metal, as jewelry, comes to us from the ancients, but it is not until modern times that this process has been used for cookery. The porcelain or enamel is so spread, hardened and annealed or tempered that it is about as elastic as the steel and therefore does not break or crack under high temperatures. But the cheaper qualities are not reliable; consequently buy the best. There is no chance of appendicitis in using enamel ware for never has any intestinal disturbance been found to have originated from chipping enamel (as has been said by enamel’s enemies). So have no fear about using good quality enamel or aluminum or any other of the best quality utensils sold to you by reputable manufacturers. You are not only safe but fortunate when you can afford the best variety of the best species. The enamel merchants say that their ware is decorative and therefore lends charm to the kitchen because it can be bought in blue, green, white, gray, maroon, etc., and we add, too, that aluminum is decorative and it adds a silver-like touch to a well put-together kitchen.