I grew up with the understanding that Mason jars were things you filled with jam, beets or mustard pickles.
My parents started making tomato sauce when I was in high school and expanded their canning over the last 10 years to include many different ingredients and approaches.
I was talking with my Father when he shared stories of his mother preserving whole fruit (or slices) in little more than sugar-water. Peaches, apricots, plums, strawberries and more. It instantly got my curiousity going and I had to learn more. We`ve been preserving whole fruit and berries for a few years now and these are often our favourite jars of the year. Leftover syrup can be used in beverages, ice cream, baking, iced tea while your fruit or berries can be eaten whole, served as desert, baked with, added to yogurt and lots of other options.
Fruit (and berries) are consider high-acid (most have a pH under 4) which means they will preserve without the need for additional acid. This acidity and their natural occurring sugar makes them awesome to preserve with as little else in the jar as possible. Jarring chunks of whole fruit or berries in a simple syrup like this are traditionally known as a `preserves`.
The basics of this technique are simple:
- Mix raw fruit with sugar and let it rest for up to 24 hours in your fridge. This is known as steeping.
- Cook the fruit to the jell point – place in jars or return to the fridge overnight. This is known as plumping and will help stop your fruit from floating in the jars (I also believe it makes for fuller jars but that`s simply my perception and is probably tied to the lack of floating created by this technique).
- Return the fruit to a boil before canning and processing in a hot water bath. Don`t be afraid to really force your berries tightly into a jar – you`ll br amazed at how much space is created as they further soften in the hot water bath.
If you were to preserve strawberries like this, you would mix 2 pounds of strawberries with 3 cups of sugar and a quarter-cup lemon juice. You could crush the berries if you wanted to – or leave them whole.
I`m a really big fan of making complementary jars which can be mixed and matched into something even better than it`s individual parts. Open a jar of whole berries preserved like this, strain out the juices (save for other uses) and add the whole berries to a jar of jam (or preserved rhubarb) for the chunkier and most berry-liscious spread you can have.
As you lower your sugar in the jar you typically also lower shelf-life though I have found that our whole berries have at least a year of fabulous flavour. To find more recipes for preserves, simply look for the name of a fruit followed by the word `preserves` (i.e. quince preserves, strawberry preserves, gooseberry preserves, etc).
We will discuss other options – including using apple juice, grape juice and alternate sweeteners later in the week.
What a great information. Thanks for sharing.
This information is so useful. I can’t wait to get some whole berries canned and my pantry stocked up over the next few months. Makes great sense, so thanks for the inspiration.
hi joel,
this is great! i have a question regarding the jell point. if your cooking down to a jell point, doesn’t the fruit, particularly berries, pretty much cook down? it’s hard for me to imagine getting to a jell point and still maintaining whole, or whole slices of fruit.
I could have described that better 🙂
Strawberries stay whole, raspberries would fall apart. Cherries stay whole as well. In both cases they soften considerably – cherries go softer than maraschino and strawberries are kind of like the ones you`d get on an ice cream sundae at Dairy Queen or something like that.
Heather and Tigress, the set is a lose set. There`s not enough pectin for the jel to actually stiffen so you end up with a thick syrup that is definitively seperate from the syrup. They are so seperate that I have often thought about making `strawberry milk`like I had as a kid with the syrup – there would be no berry in it. The berries are great in ice cream or smoothies…
Does this extra info help or is it time to come over for a taste…smiles..
I was thinking the same thing, Tigress; doesn’t cooking to the jell point pretty much define “jam”? I don’t preserve a lot of fruit this way (there’s that whole over-sweetness thing for me of storing in a sugar syrup) but I did make honey-spiced peaches last summer. Typical instructions include to boil the syrup, then add fruit just to warm through, then pack jars and process.
Of course – my peaches did float.
One of the best things about the Ferber technique for preserves is that you cook the juice/syrup to the jell point, then add the fruit and simply bring back to a boil, meaning the fruit has a chance to remain whole.
Maybe those Toronto berries are hardier specimens?? 🙂
Hey guys…this may also help…
I found the following description of `preserves` on the National Center for Home Food Preservation – think they nailed it (their recipe has 6 cups of strawberries to 4.5 cups of sugar, nothing else):):
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These “preserves” contain large or whole pieces of fruit within a thickened sugar syrup of medium to thick consistency. Fruit pieces retain their size and shape. If you are looking for a jam-like spread, please refer to the sections on jams, marmalades and conserves.
The sugar is necessary for the preservation in these methods. These products cannot be made without the sugar, or with sugar substitutes. The sugar should not be reduced, either. If you want reduced sugar preserves, try jams made with purchased pectins sold specifically for reduced- or no-sugar-added jams and jellies.
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http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can7_jam_jelly.html scroll to find the preserves recipes (it`s small)
[…] had read Well Preserved’s take on preserving strawberries this way. But frankly and surely (Hi Frank! Hi Shirley!), I didn’t understand how to get […]
Guess what? todady in traffic-wondering how to cann whole strawberries–ii came up with the same idea–that to boil don the srup until–sthick or syruppy-then Add whole strawberries- cook for a few moments and THEn put into jars—-water bath them——-they are beautiful to look act and- hope to EAT!—-will let you-all Kknnow abbie
Now wwhat?????
laughing…i don`t know what now 🙂 excellent that you are doing whole fruit – it`s like a sundae topping 🙂 also great in yogurt, granola and more.
[…] Berries – Preserved Whole. One word: ICE CREAM. Baking, too. And pancakes. […]
I have a question about bringing the fruit back to a boil before canning – do you do this in the jars they were in the fridge with, or do you dump the fruit in a pot and then re divvy it up into jars again?
Thanks!
Hi Rachelle,
I place them in a wide pot (the wider the better as heat will be distributed across and will bring the fruit up to temperature quicker which means less cooking time. Hope that helps – let us know how it goes!