No special equipment is needed to successfully home can all manner of fruits. Just check out our instructions and start home canning your own produce now!
Canning at home is a great way to preserve fruit (including tomatoes) in times of plenty. Their are several methods you can use to can fruit at home. The most common are cold water bath, the oven and hot water bath methods.
Here we'll talk about the hot water bath method of home canning. This method requires no special skills and certainly no special equipment. If you are new to home canning this is definitely the way to start!
Vegetables are low in acid and difficult to sterilise so they are best preserved cooked (such as in chutneys) or pickled in alcohol, salt or vinegar (such as dill pickles). Fruit, however has a much higher acidity and is therefore easy to can at home safely. In the UK we call canning, bottling so I will use the terms interchangeably here.
How to Can Fruit at Home?Tomatoes are perhaps the most useful fruit to home can because they can be used in so many ways, from pasta sauces to stews and soups. To bottle tomatoes at home simply follow the procedure above, adding a pinch of salt and warm water to the jars rather than sugar syrup.
How Long to Simmer Fruit When Home Canning?Simmering fruit when home bottling is the action that sterilises the fruit, helping it stay in good condition over time. Simmering for too long will, in effect 'cook' the fruit for maybe longer than ideal but will not affect its storing capacity. Simmering for too short a time is more problematic as you may not sterilise the fruit sufficiently and it may spoil. So, if in doubt simmer for a longer, not shorter time.
We have more information on home preserving home preserving and ideas to reduce food waste with recipes, hints and tips to start you off. And, for more ideas for a frugal and more self sufficient life come visit our site.
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