Category Archives: Jams and Jellies

Apple Abundance

Apple jelly jarsIf your apple season is winding down with A LOT of apples, or if you stumble into a great sale at the grocery store, then you likely have enough apples to make apple juice and/or jelly!

First, prepare apples for extracting their juice. If you plan to make jelly and use purchased pectin, then you can use all ripe apples. If you are going to make jelly and rely on only the natural pectin in apples, then use ¼ slightly under-ripe apples and ¾ just ripe apples. Make juice in small batches – about 3 pounds of apples with 3 cups water will produce 4 cups apple juice. Sort the apples, discarding damaged portions. Wash the apples and cut them into pieces, but DO NOT remove skins or cores – the pectin is most concentrated in the skins and cores.

Now you’re ready to extract the juice. Place fruit into a flat-bottomed saucepan and add one cup water per pound of apples. Bring to a boil on high heat and stir to prevent scorching. Reduce heat and cook until soft, about 20 to 25 minutes. Be careful not to overcook; too much boiling will destroy the pectin, flavor, and color.

To clarify the juice, pour the entire contents of the saucepan into a damp jelly bag and suspend the bag so that the juice drains into a large bowl. For the clearest juice (and therefore the clearest jelly), do not press or squeeze the jelly bag.

using-a-jelly-bag

Once the juice is clarified, you may freeze it. Be sure to leave 1½-inch headspace and use a moisture-proof, durable freezer container. If you think you might use the juice for jelly, then do not presweeten it before freezing.

If you want to can the juice as is, follow these directions for canning Apple Juice in a boiling water canner. (Note: you could also can local cider from a cider maker; try to can it within 24 hours after being pressed.)

Follow these directions if you want to use the juice in Apple Jelly without added pectin.

Refer to pectin product packaging and follow those directions if you prefer to make jelly with added pectin.

© Andress, E.L., Harrison, J.A., eds. (2006). So Easy to Preserve, 5th ed. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Cooperative Extension.

Preserving the Fickle Fig

Whole and sliced figsFigs can be perfectly ripe when you pick them from the tree, then just a few days later they are notably far less appealing. With an extensive history of cultivation and consumption, fig trees provide us with fruit that is often preserved in order to extend its revered but fleeting qualities of flavor and texture.

Although a fruit, figs also display a borderline pH value for preserving as an acid food. Most fruits are clearly acid foods, with a pH below 4.6. (Vegetables, by the way, tend to be low acid foods, with pH values above 4.6.) Just a few fruits, figs among them, naturally range in pH right around 4.6, making them a borderline acid/low acid food since the pH can go above 4.6. Therefore, to be safely processed in a boiling water canner, some acid needs to be added to figs to keep them safe from botulism risk. You will see in the recommendations below that lemon juice or citric acid must be added, in the amounts called for, to home-canned fig products.  These acidification levels were determined through research.

Here are a few tested recommendations for preserving figs to try the next time you find yourself with fresh figs on your trees, or in your hands:

Fig Preserves is the recipe to use if you want to keep the plump fruits whole. This is a traditional southern-style whole fruit preserves, not a spread like jam. Fig Jam without added pectin directs you to chop the figs, and contains less sugar and less lemon juice than its crushed-fruit, pectin-added counterpart, Fig Jam with liquid pectin. If you’re willing to mix fruit flavors, then you might like to try Strawberry-Fig Preserves, which uses gelatin to help obtain a gel.

Another option for canning is to make Fig Pickles!

You may also choose to Freeze your figs. Unlike when canning, acid does not need to be added to figs in order to safely freeze them. However, it is suggested that lemon juice or ascorbic acid is added for the purpose of preventing discoloration and maintaining the highest quality of the figs.

Fresh fig halves on dryer trayFigs are excellent fruits for drying. To dehydrate figs, select fully ripe fruit and wash or clean the whole fruit with a damp cloth. Leave small fruit whole, and cut larger fruit in half. You should pretreat figs to be left whole by “checking” them.  Dip them in boiling water for 30 seconds or until skins split, then plunge them in ice water to stop further cooking. Be sure to drain them well on paper towels before loading them onto dehydrator trays and drying them for 6 to 12 hours.  The moisture inside the figs needs an escape route for drying out before intact skins would get too tough and dry.

Dried green figs

To learn more about dehydrating, please read Preserving Food: Drying Fruits and Vegetables.

Strawberry-Kiwi Jam Recipe

Strawberry Kiwi JamStrawberry-Kiwi Jam jars

Blending the local with the exotic, Strawberry-Kiwi jam is a flavorful extension of a classic strawberry jam. Strawberries are plumping up on farms in the southern states. If you’re farther north, then you might want to save this recipe for June or July when you’ll have fresh berries of your own. Or, you can pluck some strawberries off a shelf at the grocery store while you are purchasing the more exotic ingredients that most likely don’t grow close to home: kiwis and (crystallized) ginger.

Crushing StrawberriesChopping KiwiMincing Crystallized Ginger

Strawberry-Kiwi jam is a slightly tangy, subtly spicy, but mostly sweet jam. It goes great on toast, and if you like to bake then try it in thumbprint cookies or with cake. Home canning beginners may want to follow the illustrated instruction guide available here: Step-By-Step Preserving Strawberry-Kiwi Jam. Please also read Using Boiling Water Canners and Principles of Home Canning before beginning. For those of you already comfortable with the basics, here’s the recipe from the University of Georgia publication So Easy to Preserve:

Strawberry-Kiwi Jam with powdered pectin

Makes about 6 half-pint jars

–          3 cups crushed strawberries

–          3 kiwi, peeled and diced

–          1 tablespoon lemon juice

–          1 tablespoon minced crystallized ginger

–          1 package powdered pectin

–          5 cups sugar

Procedure:

  1. Wash canning jars and keep warm.
  2. Prepare two-piece canning lids according to manufacturer’s directions.
  3. Combine strawberries, kiwi, lemon juice, ginger and pectin in a large saucepot. Bring quickly to a boil, stirring frequently.
  4. Add sugar, stirring until dissolved.
  5. Return to a rolling boil. Boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly.
  6. Remove from heat. Skim foam if necessary.
  7. Ladle hot jam into hot jars, leaving ¼ inch headspace.
  8. Wipe jar rims and adjust lids.
  9. Process in a Boiling Water Canner using recommended process times in the table below.
Table 1.   Recommended process time for Strawberry-Kiwi Jam in a boiling water canner

Process   Time at Altitudes of

Style   of Pack

Jar   Size

0   – 1,000 ft

1,001   – 6,000 ft

Above   6,000 ft

Hot

Half-pints
or Pints

10   min

15 min

20 min

Open jars of jam Turning Until Fingertip Tight

If you’re not able to access the Step-By-Step instructions, then go to http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can7_jam_jelly.html and click on “Step-By-Step Preserving Strawberry-Kiwi Jam”.

Umm…what exactly is botulism? (Part I)

Glad you asked. This question is going to be answered in three parts, because it’s rather hefty, but very important to home food preservers, especially people who like to make canned products. The next three entries will cover the topics of Botulism: Sources (what it is and what it does), Botulism: Solutions (how you can prevent it), and Botulism: Surprises (did you know…).

Botulism: Sources

You’ve probably heard of botulism, and you likely know it’s a deadly foodborne disease. But do you know what causes botulism and how it works?

Let’s start by examining the source of botulism: rod-shaped bacteria called Clostridium botulinum. This microorganism is commonly found in soil and in marine sediment. It exists in two forms: as protected structures called spores, and as vegetative cells. To picture these forms, you could imagine spores like seeds and vegetative cells like sprouting plants.

C. botulinum spores are extremely common in soil and marine sediment, and therefore are also commonly found on the surfaces of fruits, vegetables, and seafood. Spores are generally harmless to adults (but can be harmful to infants; more about that later). The spore stage is formed when the bacteria are in an environment they find unfavorable; it is a protective stage that keeps the cell dormant or inactive but allows it to survive. When conditions are favorable, spores germinate into vegetative cells. Active vegetative cells are able to colonize and produce deadly botulinum toxin.

So what are those favorable conditions that allow the growth of C. botulinum?  Very low oxygen (such as in a sealed canning jar) and low acidity, meaning a pH value of 4.6 or above (such as in meats, vegetables, and some tomatoes, figs, and Asian pears).  That is why home food preservers need to be informed about Clostridium botulinum— you are not only dealing with the bacteria, but also the conditions ripe for them to grow out and produce toxin.

jars of veggies

What are the signs and symptoms of botulism? When consumed by humans, the neurotoxin produced by vegetative cells binds to nerve endings that join muscles, preventing muscles from contracting. Symptoms begin with nausea, vomiting, weakness, and dizziness which usually appear 12-36 hours after consuming the toxic food. Next are neurological symptoms such as blurry vision, difficulty speaking and swallowing, and lack of muscle coordination. Eventually the diaphragm and chest muscles become affected, which prevents breathing and results in death from asphyxia.

Can you do anything to stop botulism once the illness begins to affect the human body? Quick medical attention and injection of antitoxin can stop, but rarely reverse, nerve damage. Also, the antitoxin cannot always be used due to serious side effects.

Information in the entry comes from the USDA Factsheet Clostridium botulinum and So Easy to Preserve.