Preserving and Canning Fruit
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the jars
Place a cold jar on a towel dampened with cold water.
Ensure the jar is perfectly dry before filling it with boiling hot fruit.
Seal and cool
Screw down the tops of the jars and let them cool on the wet towel, tightening the tops as they cool.
Fruit notes
For currants, use a pound of sugar per pound of fruit.
For pears, add 1 tablespoon of bourbon whiskey to a quart jar before sealing.
Cook strawberries for 15 to 20 minutes to expel air before canning.
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
- Fruit
- Forms the main body of the preserve and sets the flavour and texture of the finished jar.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps preserve the fruit by binding water and inhibiting spoilage microbes.
- Bourbon whiskey
- Adds a woody, aromatic flavour to pears when included.
The step that matters
Expel air from strawberries before canning. Cooking strawberries for 15 to 20 minutes drives out trapped air, which helps the jar form a proper vacuum seal and reduces spoilage risk.
“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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