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Canned Fruits

A method for preserving soft and hard fruits in jars using sugar syrup and boiling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pear and plum match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 245 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Canned Fruits

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the jars

  1. Fill jars with fruit.

  2. Cover with syrup made from juice for soft fruits or a mixture of water and sugar for hard fruits.

  3. Screw down the covers without rubber.

  4. Place jars on a rack separated by kitchen towels.

Process

  1. Immerse jars in warm water up to their necks.

  2. Bring to a boil.

  3. Boil strawberries for 2 minutes.

  4. Boil pineapples for 5 minutes.

  5. Boil peaches, pears, and plums for 20 minutes.

Seal and store

  1. Remove jars one by one.

  2. Take off the cover.

  3. Fill to the brim with fresh, boiling syrup.

  4. Replace the cover.

  5. Screw it on tightly.

  6. Tighten the covers again once jars are cold.

  7. Wrap each jar in paper to protect from light.

  8. Store in a cool, dark place, ideally a dry cellar at around 50°F (10°C).

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pear + plumtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Peach + plumtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together163 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Peach + peartop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together114 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Sugar + peartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,079 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Sugar + peachtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and helps preserve the fruit's flavor and texture in the jar.
Soft fruits
Provide the main fruit flavor and texture, covered in juice-based syrup.
Hard fruits
Hold their shape through boiling in a water and sugar syrup.

The step that matters

Boil for the right time. Boiling time for each fruit must match its type. Too short leaves the fruit under-processed, while too long softens it and can spoil the texture.

Swap the peach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, pear, plum):

  1. Apricotfits about as well
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Peachthe original
  4. Applefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, pear, plum. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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