Preserving Your Surplus
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To share ways of preserving what you've grown such as bottling, freezing, dehydrating.
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SealsI have another small pot of water boiling on the stove, before I get a jar out of the oven I place a perfit seal in it (to sterilise). Once the jar is full to overflowing and placed on wooden surface, using tongs I place the seal on top and screw on the ring. I tighten it using a teatowel as it gets hot. As I fill jars and place them on the wooden surface I make sure they do not touch each other as I've been told this can also make them crack. As the jars cool the perfit seal should bow in the middle rather than being slightly raised, this shows It has successfully sealed.
Basic Fruit Bottling
Water I usually add as little water as possible just enough to cover the bottom of the pan well and bubble up through the fruit as a lot of juice comes out of the fruit.
Sugar i add sugar to taste after fruit has cooked slightly as I understand this gives more sweetness for less sugar added. Also I barely make it sweet as the longer the bottled fruit is stored the more the sugar content increases.
Discussion Forum
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Comment Wall
Comment
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Comment by Peter watson on December 31, 2012 at 7:03pm -
The perfit seals can be used more than once, depending on how carefully the seal was broken previously (ie absolutely minimal bending of the rim).
However, their price seems to keep going up year by year, and I have stopped using them. Instead I use any jars that have 'pop up' tops, such as are commonly used for jams, pasta sauces etc.
The idea with filling is to exclude air, so overflowing is best, however, when doing this, there is always the danger of something (eg tomato seeds) preventing a complete seal. I get over this problem by nearly filling to the top, and overflowing the last couple of centimeters with boiling hot water.
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Comment by Cyndi Findlay on December 31, 2012 at 6:52pm -
oh and also, how far does the jar need to be filled up to....just to the top or over flowing ????as you can tell i'm a preserving virgin !! lol
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Comment by Cyndi Findlay on December 31, 2012 at 6:48pm
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hello every body, and happy new year. wondering if i could get some information; i just read that the seals can only be used once when preserving jars? is this correct or can they be used again if theyve been used and sterlized?
cheers, Cyndi
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Comment by Megan on May 4, 2012 at 2:45pm -
Thanks Lynn & Moggy, the quince hadn't been peeled or cored - I just washed them, rubbed off the fluff and cut them in half before cooking. When they were soft, scooped out the core. I don't like the gritty bits which is why I sieved the pulp - tried scooping out as much as possible but didn't get it all. I find it more hassle to peel and core before cooking them because the fruit are so hard. The only time I do so is when I slow bake them - even then I don't bother to peel them :)
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Comment by Lynn on May 4, 2012 at 10:54am -
Same here - I put the cores in a muslin bag for the boiling process though, so that there was the extra bit of pectin and then removed that before mashing the rest of the pulp...including the skins. It's delicious!
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Comment by moggy on May 4, 2012 at 9:56am -
Megan there is absolutely no need to put the pulp through a sieve. I just peel and core them, then chop them up and boil, there are no bits you need to remove after that
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Comment by Megan on May 3, 2012 at 9:36pm
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now I remember why I haven't made quince paste for years - pushing 2 kilos of pulp through a sieve is not easy. I don't own a mouli and didn't want to put it through the food processor. Hope it's worth the effort :)
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Comment by josephal on May 3, 2012 at 8:45pm -
dehydrate them, so delicious
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Comment by Angela Wayenburg on May 3, 2012 at 8:44pm -
Just wondering if anyone has bottled persimmons? If so how did they go about it?
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Comment by Franzi on May 3, 2012 at 7:35pm -
There are definitely recipes out there without any sugar or sugar-substitues! I know that my grandmother in her younger years did not have the availability to buy sugar and they were able to preserve fruit (in what was called 'Kompott' I think...swiss, sorry) without anything added to it OR owning a fridge!... I am unsure if it involved fermentation maybe...? Sadly she is not alive anymore to ask and I haven't yet found any good recipes without having to buy a book... I thought I ask on here! But I shall go for a little trip to the good old library and get stuck in some books :) I will share if I find some simple good alternatives... Thanks for all the responses anyway I definitely would love to try some of the ideas.
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