Fancy a larder stocked with fruity jams, spicy chutneys and gleaming jars of golden fruit? Give home preserving a go and you’ll discover it’s not just economical and planet-friendly – it’s also hugely satisfying…
Fancy a larder stocked with fruity jams, spicy chutneys and gleaming jars of golden fruit? Give home preserving a go and you’ll discover it’s not just economical and planet-friendly – it’s also hugely satisfying
In these days of cheap canned foods, why bother bottling your own? Surely preserving is mysterious, difficult, wickedly dangerous and a monumental waste of time.
Not so! Home preserving is nowhere near as tricky as you might imagine and is an economical way of stocking your cupboards with great-tasting, high-quality food.
Doing your own preserving means you can use special ingredients such as homegrown or organic fruit and Fairtrade sugar. You can adjust recipes to taste, making them as spicy, sweet or salty as you like. It also means knowing exactly what – and what you’re not – spooning onto your toast or ladling onto your plate. Support local orchards and growers by bulk-buying cheap seasonal produce, or use fruit and veggies you’ve picked or grown yourself to save even more on your grocery bill.
Preserving is for many of us an important part of our family heritage. It’s something most of our grandmothers – if not our mothers – did every year, filling their kitchens with tantalising smells from their bubbling preserving pans.
Equipment to get started with:
• A preserving pan and one other large pot
• Glass jugs
• Old, clean tea towels
• Tongs and a slotted spoon
• Long-handled wooden spoons
• A large metal soup ladle
• Kitchen scales
• Fruit stone remover
• Glass jars of various shapes and sizes with functioning lids
• Extra ice cube trays (for making ice water)
• A wide-mouth canning funnel (nice to have but optional)
• Labels for identification and dates
There are various bottling methods to choose from, all starting with clean, sterilised a few time-honoured tips, you should be sure of a good result. Depending on the method, you won’t necessarily have to preserve large quantities of fruit at a time.
Indulge in your own late-summer bottling session and reconnect with this rich kitchen tradition – or start your own. Get together with a girlfriend for an afternoon’s bottling and involve older kids in helping prepare the fruit.
Preserving basics
There are several common ways of preserving (also called bottling or canning), the main difference being whether the fruit is cooked before or after it is put in the preserving jars.
One approach is to pack cold uncooked fruit into clean jars and top them up with boiled syrup before sealing either with the Boiling Water or Water Bath Methods. This gives you the best-looking result when bottling whole or large pieces of soft fruit that you want to keep intact.
A second approach involves first cooking the jam or chutney, or poaching the fruit in syrup, before transferring the mixture into hot jars for sealing with the Overflow Method. This method is quick and easy and can be used for processing large or small quantities. It is ideal for jams, chutneys, sauces or stewed fruit. It’s the preferred option of my mother and sisters as it was my grandmother’s method, a stalwart of the Country Women’s Institute.
Either way, start with a clean work area and use quality, ripe fruit and vegetables that are free of rot. Make small batches to begin with until you get the hang of it.
Bottled with an airtight seal, preserves can be safely stored in a cool, dark place for up to a year. If a jar shows signs of leakage or a faulty seal, use the contents immediately, store it in the fridge or re-bottle the contents. Take extra care when processing tomatoes or other fruit that is high in acid. If you open your preserves and they are fizzy or smell odd, don’t eat them! Feed the birds or your compost instead.
A preserving pan with a large surface area allows liquid to rapidly evaporate. Check out garage sales for large pans or other useful implements such as slotted spoons or wide-mouth funnels.
Jars and lids
There are several types of preserving jar lids. One type comes in two parts: a dome seal, airtight when the jars have cooled, and a screw band that holds the seal in place during processing. The edge of the dome lids can be damaged when jars are opened and their rubber seals become less effective when used repeatedly. However, the outer screw bands can be reused many times. Empty jam or sauce jars are also fine to use, provided the glass isn’t cracked or chipped. They also need to have securely-fitting lids that aren’t rusted or pitted, with an intact rubber seal in a ring on their underside. Soak recycled jars overnight in cold water and scrape off old labels with a knife.
Sterilising your jars
Preheat the oven to 150°C and sterilise the jars by first washing them thoroughly in hot, soapy water. Place the jars in your largest pot, cover with water and boil for at least five minutes, making sure the jars remain submerged.
If you are using recycled jam jars, wash and boil the lids along with the jars, leaving them in the pot of hot water until you are ready to use them. If you are using new dome lids, rinse and put them in a metal bowl and cover with boiling water to ensure they’re clean and the rubber seals are soft.
Using tongs, carefully remove the jars from the pot, tip out any water, then lay them on their sides on the oven rack. Make sure the jars are not touching one another. You can switch off the oven as long as you keep the oven door shut, so the jars stay hot until you’re ready to fill them.
The two main methods
Overflow Method
Clear an area close to the stove where the jars can be quickly filled at maximum temperature. Bring the jam, pickle or preserving liquid to boiling point, add any fruit and poach until cooked. Remove sterilised jars (see above) from the oven with tongs and sit them upright in a warmed, heatproof bowl. Using a clean soup ladle or jug, fill the hot jars, releasing any air bubbles by sliding a knife down the inside of each jar. Top up jars with the hot preserving liquid or boiling water until they’re just overflowing. Wipe the rim of each jar and put on the lid, taking care that the rubber part of the seal is in contact with the jar’s rim. Screw the lids on tightly, or if using dome lids and bands, screw the bands down tightly. Wipe the outsides of the jars and transfer to a tea towel or newspaper to cool. Check the dome of each lid is down and stays down. If using bands, leave the jars to cool for 12 hours before removing them.
Boiling Water Method
Pack the fruit firmly into sterilised jars, leaving a 2cm space at the top. Fill with the hot prepared syrup to within 1cm of the top, cover with a dome seal and loosely screw on the ring. Transfer the jars to a large roasting pan (a maximum of 6), place in an oven preheated to 150°C until fine bubbles begin to rise. Remove the jars from the oven, screw the bands on securely and leave for 24 hours. Check lids as above.
Extra notes
Pectin
A wonder of nature, pectin is the setting agent in fruit. Some fruits, such as tart apples and plums, have more pectin than others, such as strawberries and peaches. Under-ripe fruit has more pectin than ripe fruit. To make jams from lower-pectin fruits or vegetables, you can add some extra pectin so they’ll set. You can buy powdered pectin from most supermarkets or you can buy it already mixed into jam sugar.
Blanching
It sounds nasty, but it’s really just a simple process whereby small batches of fruit or vegetables are briefly immersed in a pot of boiling water, scooped out and then plunged into ice water. Blanching helps set the colour of the food and also softens it, making it easier to skin. With larger fruit such as tomatoes, cutting a cross on the top of each one before dropping it into the boiling water also helps skinning.
Plum Chutney
Chutney is a great accompaniment to Indian food, but this sweet-and-sour condiment will spice up everything from a grilled cheese sandwich to roast chicken. Makes about 9 cups
2 cups cider vinegar
2 cups Fairtrade sugar
2kg plums, pitted and diced
2 large sweet onions, diced
1/2 cup prunes, diced
2 tbsp ginger, freshly grated
2 tbsp mustard seeds
2 tsp salt
Zest of 1 lemon, cut into thin strips
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp ground cloves
Bring the vinegar and sugar to the boil in a large pot. Add the plums, onions, prunes, ginger, mustard seeds, salt, lemon zest, garlic, and cloves, and return to the boil. Simmer until thickened – about 30 minutes. Ladle into hot, clean jars and seal using the Overflow Method.
Peaches in Syrup
1 cup sugar
3 cups water
aproximately 1kg peaches
Boil the sugar and water together for 5 minutes to make about 3.5 cups of syrup. The syrup required will vary with the size of the fruit and how closely it’s packed into the jars. The amount of syrup can be multiplied depending on the amount of fruit being preserved.
Peel the peaches, run a knife around their circumference and twist in half. Remove the stones and pack the fruit firmly into sterilised jars, leaving 2cm at the top.
Fill up with the hot prepared syrup and seal using the Boiling Water Method.
Ginger Peach Jam
The addition of ginger gives the peaches a little heat and an exotic base note. Makes about 6 cups
2 cups sugar
1 tbsp pectin
1 cup water
1/4 cup bottled lemon juice
2kg peaches
2 tbsp ginger, freshly grated
Stir the sugar and pectin together in a small bowl and set aside. Combine the water and lemon juice in a large pot. Prepare an ice water bath in a large bowl or clean sink.
Bring another large pot of water to the boil. Blanch the peaches, two at a time, to loosen the skins. Using a small paring knife, peel, pit and dice the peaches, adding them to the lemon water as you go.
Bring the peach mixture to the boil. Add the ginger and simmer for five minutes. Lightly mash about one quarter of the mixture. Stir in the sugar-pectin mixture and return to the boil before removing from the heat.
Ladle into hot, clean jars and seal according to the Overflow Method.
Tasty Tomato Relish
It’s the dried dill tips that give this relish its smoky tang. Makes about 1 cup.
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, peeled and finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
500g tomatoes, peeled and chopped
2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp malt vinegar
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp dried dill tips
Salt and pepper to season
Sauté the onion in the olive oil until soft, then add the garlic and tomatoes. Cook for several minutes before adding the remaining ingredients. Continue to cook while stirring for several more minutes or until the mixture has reduced and thickened. Spoon into small hot sterilised jars and seal using the Overflow Method.
Preserved Tomatoes with Rosemary Spears
The combination of whole tomatoes, pickling spices and rosemary makes for sensational-looking preserves that can be added to salads, pasta, roast vegetables and a host of other dishes. Makes two 2-litre jars, (see right).
2kg firm tomatoes
1 litre cider or white wine vinegar
625g sugar
4 tsp pickling spice
2 tsp salt
1 tsp dried tarragon
2-4 fresh rosemary spears
Blanch the tomatoes and skin with a knife. Combine the vinegar and all other ingredients except the rosemary in a pot and stir over a moderate heat until the sugar has dissolved. Run the rosemary spears under boiling water and set to one side.
For the Boiling Water Method, pack the blanched but uncooked fruit firmly into sterilised jars, leaving a 2cm space at the top. Slide the rosemary spears down the inside of each jar. Top up with the vinegar mixture and seal.
If using the Overflow Method, bring the vinegar liquid to the boil, add the tomatoes and poach before carefully transferring the whole tomatoes to the jars, leaving several centimetres at the top.
Slide the rosemary spears down the insides of each jar. Return the vinegar mixture to the boil and use to top up each jar before sealing.
Tomato Sauce with Pasta
41/2 kg ripe red tomatoes, skinned
400g onions, finely chopped
6-8 roasted red capsicums, sliced
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
100g sugar
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp ground pepper
400g dried spaghetti
Place the skinned and sliced tomatoes, capsicums, chopped onions and garlic in a large pan. Add the sugar, salt and pepper and simmer for 20 minutes.
Cook the spaghetti in boiling, salted water until firm to the bite, drain and add to the tomato mixture. Boil together for 5 minutes. Ladle into sterilised jars, leaving a 1cm gap at the top. Fill the jars with boiling water, ensuring no tomato seeds get caught under the lip of the seals and seal using the Boiling Water Method.