Content

• Ingredients
• Steps
• Tips
• Warnings
• What do you need
• Additional articles

It doesn't matter if you have an orchard, or if your neighbors brought you a couple of bags of fresh fruit, if you don't take action, they won't stay fresh for long. There are three main ways to keep fruit fresh: freeze, canned, or dry. In this article, we'll cover canning, but we'll also touch on freezing and drying.

Ingredients

• Fruits
• Sugar
• Water
• Lemon juice or ascorbic acid (vitamin C)

Steps

1. 1 Select the fruit you want to keep. They should be tough and mature with little or no damage.
2. 2 Choose the way in which you will store the fruit. Fruits lose their quality quickly if you freeze them, but if you want to use them in cakes, this is not so important. Fruit drying is suitable for tough fruits like peaches, apricots, grapes, and the like, and if you do it right, you can even dry apples and bananas. This article will guide you through canning.
3. 3 Choose tough fruits such as pears, apples, or peaches. They are easier to prepare and more forgivable than soft fruits like figs, plums, etc.
4. 4 Peel the fruit. You can do this using a fruit and vegetable peeler and try to peel very thinly. It's okay to leave some of the rind as it won't affect the quality of the fruit, but cutting off the thick pieces of the rind will leave less fruit for canning.
   • You can skin soft fruits like peaches and tomatoes. Dip the fruit in boiling water for 30-60 seconds. The rind will begin to burst. Then use a slotted spoon to remove the fruit from the water and transfer it to cold water so that you can work with it. After this procedure, the skin will peel off very easily. You can end the process with a knife.
5. 5 Cut the fruit in half and remove the seeds and stem. If you did everything right, you should have two clean pieces of fruit. Remember to peel the spoiled parts off the fruit. Tomatoes can be preserved whole.
6. 6 Cut the fruit into wedges. You can simply canning the halves, or you can make the slices smaller to use for pies.
7. 7 Place the fruit in a large saucepan, add about 2.5 cm of water and place the saucepan on the hot stove top.
8. 8 Add sugar to taste, but just enough to create a canning syrup. You can use a glass of sugar per liter of fruit, but you can vary the amount of sugar depending on the fruit and your taste.
9. 9 Add spices if desired. Apples and pears can be paired with cinnamon for a little flavor, but don't use a lot of cinnamon or the syrup and fruit will brown.
10. 10 Bring the water to a boil and reduce the temperature so that the water continues to boil.
11. 11 While the fruit is cooking, prepare the jars, rings, and lids. Your jars should be rinsed before placing fruit in them. Now place the jars on your work surface. Prepare all the lids, rings, and ladle that you will use to pour the syrup and fruit into the jars.
12. 12 Cook the fruit over low heat until tender, which takes about 20 minutes to cook. The fruit should be translucent and its juice should turn into syrup.
13. 13 Turn off the stove and place the pot next to the jars.
14. 14 Transfer the fruit from the pot to the jars, filling them almost to the top. You can use a ladle for this.
15. 15 Fill the jars with syrup so that you have about 1 cm from the lid. After filling the jars, close them with the lids. To sterilize the lids, you can turn the jar over while the fruit is still hot, but for best results, it's best to handle the jars and lids before filling them.
16. 16 Process the fruit jars. Make sure to close the covers securely. Place a large pot of water on the stove and bring it to a boil. There are special pots for this step, but you can use any large pot. To prevent the cans from bursting, you can place a wire rack on the bottom. Another way to handle cans is to use a fish pan with a basket, heated on a gas stove, outside the home.
17. 17 Leave the jars in boiling water about an inch above the jar lid. The boil time of the jars depends on the size of the jar and the fruit you are harvesting. This boil will help you get rid of any microorganisms that have survived up to this point.
18. 18 Place the jars on the table, on a towel, to cool. The lids should begin to drop as the cans cool, making a distinctive sound. If a lid doesn't make a sound for hours, it means you haven't wrapped it well, and you should put the jar in the refrigerator for future consumption.
19. 19 Wipe the jars, lids, and rings off of water and place them in a cool, dry place.

Tips

• Keep everything you need close at hand to keep the whole process fast.
• Use new caps each time to keep the O-ring soft and not deformed.
• To help the fruit retain its color, add a couple of teaspoons of lemon juice or ascorbic acid.
• You can use tongs to move the hot jars.
• Use special canning jars.
• Keep your hands, work surface, and work materials as clean as possible.
• Canning apples and pears makes pie making easier.
• Throw away rusted and bent rings.
• The funnel makes the whole process easier and cleaner.
• You can soak them in lemon juice.

Warnings

• Throw away cans that have a weird smell, weird look, or mold when they open.
• Wrong and unsanitary canning methods can be very dangerous.
• For most acidic fruits, the bathroom canning method is fine. For non-acidic foods like beans or vegetables, pressure canning is best. You can find out more information about canning methods online or in cookbooks.
• Check out new cookbooks or on the internet to find out how long you need to cook fruits and jars.If you're using Granny's old recipe, follow the ingredients, but use modern canning methods.
  • Preservation rules change over time as we learn more and more about storing food properly and food quality changes. For example, tomatoes are less acidic today than they used to be.

What do you need

• Large pot to boil fruit
• Fresh, ripe fruits
• Ladle
• Jars, lids and rings
• Extra large pot to handle fruit jars
• Plate

Additional articles

How to tell if a watermelon has gone bad How to understand that mushrooms have gone bad How to make bananas ripe How to survive without cooking How to defrost bread How to store tofu How to dry mint How to open a screw-top jar of cucumbers How to store jerky How to get rid of and protect yourself from flour mites How to freeze celery How to harvest sunflower seeds How to store chopped onions How to chill food quickly