Thursday 26 August 2010

How to bottle fruit



Bottling was a common way to preserve fruit before freezers were widespread and in an attempt to keep the skill alive, I taught myself bottling last year. This year we are doing more bottling. Our freezer is full so we have to bottle fruit if we are to stand any chance of preserving it for use over the coming months.

In this video I bottle gooseberries and cherries.

3 comments:

elfriide tramm said...

exactly the same way we are used to do. except one thing - my grandma always told, that in the pot the water shouldn't cover the bottles, it should stay appr 1 cm lower the bottle. so the water will not go into the bottle. and we usually heat them longer - maybe 15-20 minutes. if you say that 2 minutes is enough, I will try it! I especially like apple-pear-plum mix bottled this way.

Anne-Marie said...

Anne-Marie in Altea, Southern Spain would like to know how to bottle nisperos (loquats). Could I remove the skins and seeds (which are not edible) before bottling? You can buy them ready bottled but we have two productive trees in the garden here. I have used them for jam and chutney and would really like to have some for the winter in bottles.

Gilly said...

This video was very helpful and the first time I used your method it worked perfectly. However the second time having followed the instructions to the letter the jars did not seal- new jars, washed and dried in the oven as recommended. Would it be OK to start again, keeping the fruit and syrup in the jar, now cold?