Canning Fruit Without Sugar
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and pack
Cull, stem, seed, and clean the fruit by placing it in a strainer and pouring cold water over it.
Pack the fruit carefully in hot glass jars or tin cans until full, using a tablespoon, wooden ladle, or table knife.
Pour boiling hot water over the packed fruit in the hot jar.
Place rubbers and caps on the jars, but do not tighten them.
Seal tin cans completely.
Sterilize and cool
Sterilize the jars or cans in a sterilizer vat or canner for the appropriate time: 30 minutes for hot‑water bath, 20 minutes for water seal at 214°F, 12 minutes at 5 pounds steam pressure, or 10 minutes at 10 pounds steam pressure.
After sterilizing, remove the filled containers and seal the jars.
Invert them to cool and test the seals.
Wrap jars in paper to prevent leaching and store in a dry, cool place.
If using tin cans, plunge them into cold water immediately after sterilization to cool quickly.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Fresh fruit
- The fruit is the food being preserved, supplying all of the flavor and texture.
- Hot water
- Boiling water heats the packed fruit and displaces air, which helps a vacuum seal form as the jars cool.
The step that matters
Sterilizing for the correct time. Heat must reach every part of the packed fruit long enough to destroy spoilage microbes. Too short a time risks spoilage and unsafe food, so the listed time for your chosen method matters.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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