Preserving 101; fruits

[serenetabbie]

So I thought I would get off my duff and start the threads destined for sticky-ness at long last

Let's make this thread the go-to place for instructions, questions and suggestions on preserving fruits. We can include canning, pickling, drying, freezing, recipes, etc. etc.. For the sake of ease in finding things, "Fruit" will include those items usually called fruit by the general public. What do you all think?

[purplegirl]

Great idea!

[jessemoon]

Great!

I'll start with a question. Does anyone have a small batch recipe for homemade catsup? All of mine start with ridiculous amounts of tomatoes. I'm looking for something that starts with under 10 lbs of tomatoes.

[Blooming]

Once you deydrate a fruit (like a pear) how is it best to store them?

[serenetabbie]

I would think a good way to store them would be in an airtight container in cupboard. That's how I store my sun dried tomatoes in any case.

Here is the pear honey recipe too;


Pear Honey

4 c peeled, crushed pears
3 c sugar
1/4 tsp salt
3 tablespoons of lemon juice

- combine everything and cook in a heavy pan, stirring frequently, for about 15 to 20 minutes until it is thick enough to spread and honey colored
- pour into hot jars, adjust lids, process in water bath for 20 minutes for 1/2 pints

[Callimom]

Originally Posted by serenetabbie

I would think a good way to store them would be in an airtight container in cupboard. That's how I store my sun dried tomatoes in any case.

Here is the pear honey recipe too;


Pear Honey

4 c peeled, crushed pears
3 c sugar
1/4 tsp salt
3 tablespoons of lemon juice

- combine everything and cook in a heavy pan, stirring frequently, for about 15 to 20 minutes until it is thick enough to spread and honey colored
- pour into hot jars, adjust lids, process in water bath for 20 minutes for 1/2 pints

This looks wonderful - thank you!
Karen

[Jennisee]

Not to be an idiot, but how does this thread differ from the "Preserving the Harvest" thread? : Would it be easier to just get that thread stickied instead?

[serenetabbie]

Jen, you are not an idiot! I thought it might be easier to find what people are looking for if there were two shorter threads dedicated to only preserving fruits/veggies. The PTH thread is so long, meandering and cumbersome to read with all kinds of different information, it could be overwhelming to someone just trying to find an applesauce recipe or how to dry bananas.

[StormySar]

apple pie filling w/o tons of sugar?

i am looking for an apple pie filling to can, that isn't chock full of sugar. I found a recipe and used it this weekend that called for 4.5 cups of sugar for 7 qts. Don't get me wrong, the filling is devine, but is there something that is still really good and tastes like apple pie, without the tons of sugar?

[jessemoon]

bump

[Ellp]

Our local store is having a sale on organic Bartlett pears, I should try the pear honey recipe!:

On the subject of pears, has anyone ever tried canning pears with vanilla? I once received a jar of canned pears that were absolutely divine. I couldn't figure out why until I realized that I smelled some vanilla in the syrup. So... boil the syrup with a vanilla bean or add some extract, and then add the pears for a hot pack? Would that work??

FWIW, I've only canned pears once before...and that was just plain and blah tasting..

[425lisamarie]

I have a general questino about jam. Is freezer jam good? I've never made it, but I recently spent countless hours picking cleaning and seeding blackberries and I just can't get the motivation to can them!

[Garden~Lover]

is this over kill? drying apples then putting them in the freezer. I am just so scared to store stuff in the pantry?

[HydeParkB]

Fruit Butters

I just made pear butter and apple butter using the crockpot. It was great! Actually, the apple butter got a skin and burned a little. But I pulled that off and it still tasted great.

Apple butter:
http://www.pickyourown.org/applebutter.htm

Pear butter:
http://www.pickyourown.org/pearbutter.htm

I didn't have the volume of pears/apples, so I scaled down the other ingredients accordingly.

[Bookworm?]

Catsup

I imagine your not finding a recipe for a small amount of tomatoes to make catsup because that would make a really small amount of catsup. It has to be cooked down quite a bit to make it thick. 20 lbs of tomatoes might make 2 qts or catsup? I've never done it so don't know for sure.

Jam
I've done strawberry freezer jam and it was good. I'll bet blackberry would work well.

Apples
I don't think it's overkill to dry and freeze. Just take out a portion your family might eat and store those in the pantry. Freeze the rest.

I froze some watermelon a few weeks ago. I hope it still tatses good in Dec or so! I've never frozen it before. I also froze blueberries on a cookie sheet and then dumped them in a freezer bag. They are really handy for muffins/pancakes and lunches.
Looking forward to making apple sauce and apple juice in a couple weeks. Would you all freeze or can the juice?

[Blooming]

We did all freezer jam this year. We did strawberry, raspberry, and blueberry. They are wonderful! Not only do they call for less sugar but they also taste super fresh.

We also made catsup this weekend. We ended up making about five pints of catsup anf freezing it. Let me know if you want the receipe and I'll pass it on.

I also put my dried tomatos in the freezer. I'm just extra careful like that, plus it was my first time and I didn't cut them evenly so I had some that were still moist.

[Contrariety]

I have loads of pears! OMG! SO many pears! I've bottled all the pears I think we'll eat, and think I'll make pear sauce with the rest of them, I think we're way more likely to eat it this way. Has anyone made something like that?

Maybe then I won't make applesauce this year, or not as much... or make both and give some for christmas gifts? maybe...

I know you're not supposed to screw with the recipes, but I used to make pear sauce for DS when he was young and added vanilla extract, do you think I can do that and still can it safely??

[Ellp]

Originally Posted by Contrariety

I know you're not supposed to screw with the recipes, but I used to make pear sauce for DS when he was young and added vanilla extract, do you think I can do that and still can it safely??

I was just going to do the exact thing! Except instead of sauce, I was just going to add a vanilla bean to my syrup mixture for my jarred pears.

In the end I didn't because I couldn't find any vanilla beans in my local store and I wasn't about to drive all around searching for one. My pears were bought a couple of days ago and really needed to be dealt with.

I just jarred as I normally do, and I had about 1C left over which I stuck in the fridge. The kids and I shared that after dinner tonight and OMG... the aroma of the pears just about knocked me over! The pears were perfectly ripe and the syrup mix was JUST RIGHT. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.:

[Blooming]

yum, pears. I can't seem to get enough of them. I made a huge pear pie last weekend. It was really good.

I hope I can get some more so that I can make pear sauce or pear honey!

[HydeParkB]

I made 3 quarts of pear sauce last night, using the link I posted above. Good stuff! I didn't put in any sugar or spices. It was sweet enough, and I figure I can sprinkle sugar on it as needed when I'm ready to eat it.

I really love the above recipe - it is so much easier than peeling and coring all those pears. I was going to try to can half pears, but it was too much trouble to do in an evening.