To the best of my knowledge, the information contained in the
accompanying CANNING.TXT file was originally published by the United
States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 1988 as their Agriculture
Information Bulletin No. 539 "Complete Guide to Home Canning", and
revised in September 1994. The seven parts to the bulletin are as
follows:

 Guide 1: Principles of Home Canning
 Guide 2: Selecting, Preparing and Canning Fruit and Fruit Products
 Guide 3: Selecting, Preparing and Canning Tomatoes and Tomato Products
 Guide 4: Selecting, Preparing and Canning Vegetables and Vegetable Products
 Guide 5: Preparing and Canning Poultry, Red Meats and Seafoods
 Guide 6: Preparing and Canning Fermented Foods and Pickled Vegetables
 Guide 7: Preparing and Canning Jams and Jellies

In this electronic version of the publication, I have tried my best to
convert to plain text all of the information and figures presented in the
USDA book's charts and tables.  One table in Guide 1, meant to be used
to help one estimate the amount of food to preserve for an entire
family, was omitted from this version, as it was not suitable for
translation to a text-only format.  In addition, two recipes were not
included because it came to my attention that the USDA may no longer
consider the directions given for those two foods to be safe for home
canners.

The guides have been specially formatted so that they may be imported
into recipe database programs which use the popular Meal-Master(trademark)
import format.  (Meal-Master users: the text will import best if the
"Reformat Directions" option is set to "NO".)

The material in this archive was checked very carefully for
typographical errors, but it is always possible that it contains
mistakes.  Keep in mind also, that USDA recommendations for home
canning are subject to change as new research on food safety becomes
available.  If in doubt, contact the USDA or your local Extention
Service agent.  Some of the material used for this file is available for
purchase in hard copy form from the U.S. Government Printing Office.


Karen Mintzias
km@salata.com
April 7, 1996