Canned Fruits
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Strew sugar over the fruit.
Let the fruit stand for a few hours.
Scald the fruit with the sugar until it is hot.
Fill and seal jars
Prepare jars by placing them in hot water.
Fill jars with the hot fruit.
Seal them tightly with heated tops.
Store and wax
Store jars in a dark, cool, dry place.
Seal corks with a mixture of resin, beeswax, and tallow.
Dip the sealed corks in melted wax.
Check jars after one week for flaws or signs of fermentation.
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
- Ripe mellow fruit
- Forms the body and flavour of the preserve.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps preserve the fruit by drawing out moisture.
- Resin
- Hardens into a seal that closes the jar against air.
- Beeswax
- Adds firmness and water resistance to the cork seal.
- Tallow
- Softens the wax mix so it spreads and seals evenly.
The step that matters
Seal the jars tightly with heated tops. Hot fruit in a sealed jar cools and contracts, drawing a partial vacuum that keeps air and spoilage microbes out. A loose seal lets air in and invites fermentation.
“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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