Low/No sugar canning recipies for Pears&Peaches

[rd200]

I want to can pears or peaches or both. My sister has a friend who can get them at wholesale price .70cents per lb. We are getting a 40lb box, so i cant eat all of them before they go bad, so i want to can some. I however am trying hard to stear away from such high sugar items. And i know when my mom made these when i was a kid, they were soooo good, but soooo sugary. The syrup you ad was just pure sugar, and i really want to do it with as least sugar as possible and still have it turn out decent. Where do I start?? I tried googling it, but there isnt many recipies with low-no sugar for canning fruit. It can be done correct/???? Any suggestions or recipies you use? thanks

 

[moolie]

You can use any kind of fruit juice, a mix of fruit juice and water, or for quarts you can just put the fruit in, then 1/3 to 1/2 cup sugar into each jar, followed by boiling water. The 1/3 cup tastes the most natural, the 1/2 cup tastes a bit sweet--more like commercial canned but still not sickly sweet.

 

[Corn Woman]

It's not necessary to add sugar at all, you can use plain water but I find the addition of a little sugar helps. I use a half lite syrup 6 to 8 cups of water depending on how sweet the fruit is, and 1 cup of sugar works for my familys taste. I have also canned pears in 1/2 pineapple juice 1/2 water as the liquid. There is still plenty of sugar in pineapple juice just not refined sugar. Happy canning.

 

[moolie]

Yeah, my Mom always did "diet" batches of fruit canned in only water, and they were horrible. You need something sweet in there!

 

[Maschil]

Yeah, my Mom always did "diet" batches of fruit canned in only water, and they were horrible. You need something sweet in there!

was the fruit itself not sweet????? like a commercial strawberry etc???? or home grown... Im about to be canning soon and will prob sale some but qwant to make sure they are palatable.

 

[moolie]

Yeah, my Mom always did "diet" batches of fruit canned in only water, and they were horrible. You need something sweet in there!

was the fruit itself not sweet????? like a commercial strawberry etc???? or home grown... Im about to be canning soon and will prob sale some but qwant to make sure they are palatable.

This was good, local, ripe, delicious fruit. These were cherries, apricots, peaches, and pears from our own and our neighbor's trees--we lived in a famous Canadian fruit-growing area called the Okanagan-Similkameen Valley in BC at the time. My Mom always did a canner-load of each type of fruit of no-sugar jars for herself because she had recently lost a lot of weight and didn't want to put any back on again. She didn't mind it, but even she told us that she noticed the difference--to us kids, that fruit was horrible and my Dad wouldn't eat it either. And we weren't (and still aren't) a family that eats a lot of sweets.

The thing with canning fruit is that once the fruit is suspended in the canning liquid, the nutrients and natural sugars from the fruit distribute themselves throughout the entire mass. If the jar holds 2/3 fruit and 1/3 water, then the water will eventually contain 1/3 of the vitamins etc. and sugars from the fruit. That's why you can fruit in syrup or juice, so you don't have any noticeable flavour loss. The goal is to balance the natural sweetness, although in the past many recipes have "sweetened" the fruit to a sickly point, which is what I think the OP is talking about--canning recipes list "light", "medium", and "heavy" syrups, I can't imagine actually eating anything but the "light".

No matter what, whether you can in juice/sugar syrup/water, you should ensure that you don't just chuck out the canning liquid after you've eaten the fruit--use it in cooking (great in meat marinades or curries), in smoothies, add it to other fruit juice to make a "fruit punch" (strain out any bits if necessary) etc.--because if you just dump it down the drain and wash the jar you've just thrown away 1/3 of the nutrients from the fruit that you canned.

 

[Maschil]

Yeah, my Mom always did "diet" batches of fruit canned in only water, and they were horrible. You need something sweet in there!

was the fruit itself not sweet????? like a commercial strawberry etc???? or home grown... Im about to be canning soon and will prob sale some but qwant to make sure they are palatable.

This was good, local, ripe, delicious fruit. These were cherries, apricots, peaches, and pears from our own and our neighbor's trees--we lived in a famous Canadian fruit-growing area called the Okanagan-Similkameen Valley in BC at the time. My Mom always did a canner-load of each type of fruit of no-sugar jars for herself because she had recently lost a lot of weight and didn't want to put any back on again. She didn't mind it, but even she told us that she noticed the difference--to us kids, that fruit was horrible and my Dad wouldn't eat it either. And we weren't (and still aren't) a family that eats a lot of sweets.

The thing with canning fruit is that once the fruit is suspended in the canning liquid, the nutrients and natural sugars from the fruit distribute themselves throughout the entire mass. If the jar holds 2/3 fruit and 1/3 water, then the water will eventually contain 1/3 of the vitamins etc. and sugars from the fruit. That's why you can fruit in syrup or juice, so you don't have any noticeable flavour loss. The goal is to balance the natural sweetness, although in the past many recipes have "sweetened" the fruit to a sickly point, which is what I think the OP is talking about--canning recipes list "light", "medium", and "heavy" syrups, I can't imagine actually eating anything but the "light".

No matter what, whether you can in juice/sugar syrup/water, you should ensure that you don't just chuck out the canning liquid after you've eaten the fruit--use it in cooking (great in meat marinades or curries), in smoothies, add it to other fruit juice to make a "fruit punch" (strain out any bits if necessary) etc.--because if you just dump it down the drain and wash the jar you've just thrown away 1/3 of the nutrients from the fruit that you canned.

excellent canning 101..... im going to make a note of this when i start... grandma left a ton of jars for me!! so i just need lids, courage, and a canning kit... Thanks

 

[~gd]

If anyone is thinking about artifical sweeteners check them out on their websites, many degrade with heat and time even some used as coffee sweeteners will degrade. Have you noticed that soda sweented with artifical sweeteners now have a use by date? A old bottle can taste 'funky'.

 

[moolie]

excellent canning 101..... im going to make a note of this when i start... grandma left a ton of jars for me!! so i just need lids, courage, and a canning kit... Thanks

Don't be afraid to ask ANY questions you have along the way, and definitely don't be afraid to put Grandma's jars to good use again!

For a "kit", all you really need for water-bath canning is a pot that is deep enough for the jars to be covered by an inch or so of water, a rack or tea towel under the jars to keep them from breaking from the heat of the burner, jars, rings, lids, something to can, and a recipe/processing time for what you want to do

The "extras" are nice: jar lifter tongs (you can just ladle out enough water to be able to grab the jars with an oven mitt or tea towel once the processing time is up), magnetic lid wand (a spoon or tongs work fine to get the lids out of the hot water), and specialized things like a cherry-pitter (takes time but can be done with a small paring knife) if you do cherries etc.--but they're not necessary for your first run! Don't let the lack of "official" canning equipment keep you from just trying it out one day.

You can find great instructions and recipes on a few canning websites (plus you-tube has lots of how-to videos). Here are a few to get you started:

www.bernardin.ca/pages/step_by_step___your_guide_to_home_canning/32.php

www.bernardin.ca/pages/recipes/3.php

http://pickyourown.org/allaboutcanning.htm

http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/publications_usda.html

 

[Maschil]

excellent canning 101..... im going to make a note of this when i start... grandma left a ton of jars for me!! so i just need lids, courage, and a canning kit... Thanks

Don't be afraid to ask ANY questions you have along the way, and definitely don't be afraid to put Grandma's jars to good use again!

For a "kit", all you really need for water-bath canning is a pot that is deep enough for the jars to be covered by an inch or so of water, a rack or tea towel under the jars to keep them from breaking from the heat of the burner, jars, rings, lids, something to can, and a recipe/processing time for what you want to do

The "extras" are nice: jar lifter tongs (you can just ladle out enough water to be able to grab the jars with an oven mitt or tea towel once the processing time is up), magnetic lid wand (a spoon or tongs work fine to get the lids out of the hot water), and specialized things like a cherry-pitter (takes time but can be done with a small paring knife) if you do cherries etc.--but they're not necessary for your first run! Don't let the lack of "official" canning equipment keep you from just trying it out one day.

You can find great instructions and recipes on a few canning websites (plus you-tube has lots of how-to videos). Here are a few to get you started:

www.bernardin.ca/pages/step_by_step___your_guide_to_home_canning/32.php

www.bernardin.ca/pages/recipes/3.php

http://pickyourown.org/allaboutcanning.htm

http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/publications_usda.html

thanks!!!! alot the first thing will probably be figs....