Bottled fruit, step by step
Interactive lesson: from choosing the fruit and syrup to hot packing, a boiling-water bath with exact times, and storing the jars.
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The whole lesson as text
1. Fruit for bottling
Fruit for bottling is picked ripe but firm.
- Ripe but firm — Overripe fruit falls apart in the bath and clouds the syrup. Unripe fruit is astringent and pale.
- Prick the skins — Prick whole sour and sweet cherries with a needle, and plums with a fork in two or three places. The skin then doesn't split in the boiling syrup.
- Figs with acid — Figs have little acid and always need added acid in every jar. In a 1 L (quart) jar that is 30 mL (2 tablespoons) of bottled lemon juice or 2 g (½ teaspoon) of citric acid.
- Strawberries to the freezer — Strawberries are not recommended for bottling: they fade and fall apart in the jar. Freeze them.
Why: Almost all orchard fruit is acidic, so a boiling-water bath is enough. The danger is yeasts and moulds: if the centre of the jar doesn't get hot enough, within a few months the fruit starts to froth.
- With stone fruit, choose freestone varieties, where the stone comes away easily. For plums, prune plums, Victorias and other firm varieties are good.
- Keep pale fruit (apples, pears, peaches) in water with vitamin C or lemon until filling.
2. Syrup
Syrup can be anything from plain water to 40 %.
- Sugar doesn't preserve — In plain water the fruit softens and fades, but it is just as safe. Sugar is for taste, colour and firmness.
- Strength by fruit — Light syrup, 250 g of sugar per 1 L of water, for peaches, apricots, apples and cherries. Medium, 430 g per 1 L, for sour cherries, plums and quinces.
- Heat and keep hot — Heat the sugar and water, stirring, until the sugar dissolves, then keep the syrup hot until filling.
- Taste the syrup — Taste the syrup before filling. It should be slightly sweeter than you like, because the fruit dilutes it.
Why: Sugar in bottled fruit does not preserve it. Fruit bottled in plain water is just as safe as fruit in heavy syrup, if the bath is the same. Sugar keeps the colour, flavour and firmness of the fruit.
- Instead of syrup you can use clear apple or white grape juice, and honey can replace up to half the sugar.
- For a 1 L (quart) jar allow roughly 0.3–0.4 L of syrup, and for a 0.72 L jar roughly 0.25 L.
3. Stopping fruit from browning · Locked
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4. Hot pack · Locked
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5. Boiling-water bath · Locked
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6. Cooling and storage · Locked
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