Bottling your own fruit

[okra]

Bottling is a very useful way of preserving your fruit gluts for use throughout the winter. Fruit selected for bottling should be fresh, firm and free from signs of disease.

Hard fruits should be washed thoroughly and left to dry before preparation. Soft fruits should be soaked in a salt solution for five minutes to remove any insects or grubs and then left to dry before preparation. Bottling is best done using glass jars, such as Kilner jars, which have airtight tops.

Prepare hard fruits for bottling in syrup as follows:-

(1) Apples and pears should be peeled, cored and quartered.
(2) Apricots, plums, nectarines and peaches should have stalks removed and bottled whole or halved and the stones removed.
(3) Figs should be top and tailed and washed

Prepare soft fruits for bottling in syrup as follows:-

(1) Strawberries should be hulled and carefully washed
(2) Blackcurrants, blueberries, cherries, raspberries and redcurrants should be de-stalked, washed carefully and any fruit showing maggot damage discarded.

Syrup:-

Prepare a syrup for packing fruit by using 250g of sugar for every 600ml of water. Dissolve the sugar, over a low heat, in 300ml of water and once dissolved add the other 300ml of water.

Pack the fruit tightly into pre-sterilised preserving jars and pour over the syrup. Tap the bottles to remove any air bubbles before sealing. Store in a cool, dry and dark area and enjoy through the winter.

 

[BarredBuff]

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Marianne]

You don't have to process it further? Now that's cool beans. Not that I'm lucky enough to have any of that fruit around...

 

[kcsunshine]

You don't have to process it further? Now that's cool beans. Not that I'm lucky enough to have any of that fruit around...

That's what I was going to ask... No canning? No hot water bath? Can't believe anything is that easy...

 

[JRmom]

I just canned peaches, and they went into a boiling water bath... I can't imagine not processing if you are raw packing!

 

[k15n1]

The bacteria C. botulinum (causes botulism) can survive in sugar solutions, corn syrup, and honey. Obvisouly, not every jar a fruit is going to kill you, but you're taking a chance with your life.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000598.htm

Don't believe me? According to everything I've read about canning (including the site below) sugar and salt are optional ingredients that do not contribute significantly to the safety of preserved foods. Acid, alcohol, or heat is required to render preserves safe.

http://www.pickyourown.org/canningqa.htm

 

[garden pixy]

I always use a boiling water bath for fruit anything, unless they are going in the fridge for immediate consumption, better safe than sorry.

 

[tamlynn]

I've never heard of Kilner jars, but just looked them up and they are very pretty!

Ditto the person who said sugar is not the preservative in bottled fruit. You need heat to kill bacteria and create a sealed environment.

Obviously you are not in the US, so tell us, is that how people preserve things in Europe? Without bringing the fruit up to a certain temperature or heating the bottled fruit after the lid is put on?

 

[moolie]

Kilner jars are the most common English canning jars come in two varieties: jars with a two-part lid similar to North American mason jars, and glass-lidded jars with rubber seals and wire bail lids--it can be difficult to determine whether or not the glass-lidded jars have sealed completely.

The method that Okra has provided is known in North America as "open kettle" canning, and isn't recommended (as k15n1 has noted). Kilner jars can be used with the boiling water method, I have an English book that shows the method and it's just the same as how we use mason jars over here.

For the safest final product it is always best to consult an up to date canning manual such as the Ball Blue Book (US) or Bernardin Guide to Home Preserving (Canada) or whatever is available locally if you are in another country. High-acid foods (most fruits) should be processed using the boiling water method, and low-acid foods (veggies and meats, convenience meals) need to be canned in a pressure canner. My understanding is that the glass-lid kilner jars are not suitable for pressure canning.

That said, people use the "open kettle" method all the time. You just don't know what bacteria may creep into the jars in between sterilizing, filling, and closing up the jar. YMMV.

 

[okra]

Botulism is relatively rare in the UK. There have only been 33 recorded cases of food-borne botulism in England and Wales since 1989. Twenty-seven of these were linked to a single outbreak that was caused by contaminated hazelnut yoghurt. Since 1978, there have been eight cases of infant botulism. None of these cases resulted in death. Kilner jars have been in use since the 1800's and bottling fruit is still widely used throughout Europe.

Although there are some risks, these are minimized by being very choosy on the fruit preserved and in sterilizing all the kitchen equipment used.

At the end of the day, all food processing carries some risks.