bottling fruit

powershopper

Hi Foreversomeday. Try getting this book
Home Preservation of Fruit and Vegetables (Paperback)

by Fish.& Food, Min.of Agriculture (Author) I got mine in 1962 and have used it ever since, and not managed to kill anyone yet!!!!!
or if you feel adventurous try Gourmet Guide to Instant Preserving: Jams and Pickles in the Microwave (Hardcover)
by Cecilia Norman (Author
Luxurious Jam: Make Yourself Mini Pots in the Microwave (Paperback)
by Sonia Allison (Author)

all available at Amazon
http://www.fruitexpert.co.uk/CanningAndBottlingFruit.html
http://www.canning-food-recipes.com/canningfruits.htm
www.allotment.org.uk/allotment_foods/bottling-canning/Bottling-Canning-Methods.php
hope these get you going !! Oh and don't forget to save your jars and lids!!
Oh yes, just a thought, a jar/lid that smell of pickles. vinegar, mint sauce etc, will ALWAYS smell of pickles,vinegar,mint sauce etc no matter how mamy times you wash, boil or sterilize them, so keep them for preserving pickles mint sauce etc.
good luck!!!

rocketone

I desperately need advice on how to efficiently bottle large amounts of fruit please ???"? Any experts out there ????

I have loads and loads of damsons, plums and apples in my garden and, as I'm living on the lowest possible income (ie benefits) as a single dad bringing up my son without a mum around I need to be as thrifty as possible.

So, I know all about bottling having read various books like Mrs Beeton etc. All of them, without exception rabbit on and make the process of bottling sound about as complex as a moon mission or something. They talk about wiping slices apples with lemon juice and other ludicrously time wasting activities !

The main problem is they all carry on about putting the fruit in jars and then heating the whole, fruit packed jars in either the oven or in water in a large pan on the hob. This takes forever and is absolutely not conducive to dealing with large amounts.

If you think about it, using these methods in an old fashioned very large household (like a country mansion of 200 years ago, with a gazzillion people - servants and owners family, living in it and needing feeding) it would take a million years of using their tiny ovens to preserve the large quantities of things they just had to preserve all the time.

Because I have made jam frequently (but never bottled anything ) I know that you just pour the finished jam into your hot and sterilised jam jar and seal and it never goes off and becomes rotten or anything.

So, my simple little question is this. Why cannot I (or anyone else) simply boil up the fruit for a few minutes in a saucepan on the hob to sterilise it and then just pour it into hot and sterilised jars from the oven and seal them just like you make jam ?

That way it is quick and simple ! and large amounts can be efficiently dealt with.

My worry is that for some some bizarre reason this simple way of doing it will not be sterile enough as bugs could (in theory) hang around to pounce into the jars of fruit when you pour the hot stuff in and just before you seal the jars with their lids. This doesn't happen with jam though, so why should it happen with plain bottled fruit ?

All the bottling advice and recipes in cookbooks say put the filled jars into the oven to then be heated to boiling point and immediately sealed to be absolutely certain the whole thing is sterile and the bottle stuff doesn't go off.

Obviously it is good advice and is guaranteed to work, but surely doing it my way (as in ordinary jam making) is going to also be sufficiently sterile ?

I just cannot process the amounts I need to by faffing around the way Mrs Beeton wants me to. I mean, you just try to wipe each bit of sliced apple from four large apple tress, producing more than a ton of fruit. Only a slight exaggeration; but do you get the point !

The trees do produce way more than a ton, but I will only be bottling enough to keep four people i supplied with vast amounts of apple puree for a year ! Ditto damsons and plums.

Any advice on this would be really welcome as I don't want to use my way of bottling tons of fruit only to have the whole flaming lot go off on me !

floyd

My understanding is that sugar in large quantities or vinegar in large quanitites creates an environment that is not so friendly for beasties to grow. However, stewed fruit provides just the right amount of water, sugar and a little air for them to happily go on and do their beastie things. This is why you have to boil the entire container for quite some time to raise the temp of the contents enough to boil any bugs to death so they cant replicate. The process is similar to the way foods are put into tins.

You run the risk of harboring botulism bacteria and spores if the fruit isn't bottled properly so it can be very dangerous. If you don't want to bottle it, can you freeze some, jam some, make cider etc?

westcoastscot

Hi,
sugar in jam is a preservative, likewise as floyd says vinegar in chutney ditto.

Best way is to freeze as you harvest if possible, for year around use - otherwise bottling the "old way" involves the waterbath method, done on top of the stove (think Mrs Beeton with an old bath-sized pan over the top of the range). Here's a link to how-to, plus timings etc

http://www.allotment.org.uk/allotment_foods/bottling-canning/Bottling-Canning-Methods.php

Pauline

thriftlady_2

I've never attempted bottling for exactly the reasons you describe. What a blooming faff! My understanding is that there is a risk of botulism if you don't do it the official way.

How much freezer space do you have? Plums and damsons freeze well raw and can then be made into pies, crumbles and cakes. Apples are best cooked first or made into a puree.

Other ideas are Spiced Damson Chutney, plum or damson jam or jelly, damson gin, apple chutney, apple jelly.

Butterfly_Brain

I like thrift lady would rather freeze fruit than faff about with putting it into jars

helyg

The apples should keep for months just as they are. I remember when I was a child we used to pick apples and pears from the garden and put them in wooden boxes lined with newspaper (making sure that the fruit was clean and dry first). As long as they were kept in a cool, dark place (we had a proper pantry with a cold slab and we used to keep them underneath the cold slab) they would last for months and months.

ubamother

The river cottage preserving lady has a preserving book out - can't remember what it's called - probably something crazy like Preserves. check out the river cottage website then hotfoot to the library.

THIRZAH

My bramley apples kept until spring in trays in the garage. We wrapped each one in newspaper.

Unless you freeze the other fruit-or make jam-you will have to bottle it "the old way" which does mean getting the preserving (kilner type jars). My mother used to bottle fruit every year until we got a freezer-after that she never bottled anything .

Zoelikesjam

If you have the room you could put a shout out on freecycle and ask for a small chest freezer. Then if someone comes up with one you could freeze everything. You could make up batches of stewed apples and freeze them for use in a crumble or something? I've got the same sort of problem with a plum tree and not much space in the freezer!