Mattsmom277 - Success!!!!!

[LittleDudesMom]

Both batches of my first fruit preserves came out great!!!!

I was heading to the farmers market this afternoon and wanted to purchase some fruit while it's still nice and fresh and reasonably priced. I had a Fiber One Light english muffin for breakfast this morning and one half had my sugar free blueberry jam and the other half I had the peach/raspberry. The both came out great!

I used the low/no sugar pectin and Splenda and I had no issue with them being runny or not gelling (they both set within 12 hours).

Next on the list is hot pepper jelly and thai sweet and hot dipping sauce (along with another batch of the peach/raspberry jam while I can still get some nice raspberries.

Good luck - I'm just tickled that my first attempts were successful!

Sharon

 

[Mattsmom277]

Woot woot! That's terrific, not to mention lends me some hope that when I start this coming weekend I can not butcher the entire batch of whatever I make first lol

I know I'll probably start with some type of jam, then I want to give a whirl at a batch of fruit honey and fruit syrup. YUMM!!! I'm psyched at homemade sugar free stuff!

Let me know how your next ventures work

 

[LittleDudesMom]

I'll let you know. I just ordered some of the little 4 oz jelly jars online because I found a recipe for cranberry mustard! Thought the mustard and the Thai dipping sauce would be nice in the little jars. Won't be doing any more canning until next week (I'm away this weekend). Let me know how it goes this weekend!

Sharon

 

[Mattsmom277]

Cranberry mustard?? YUMMM!!! When you have time, can you PM me with it? Probably be a while before I get to making it since I have a long list ready to go haha. But I'd love to try it out.

I couldn't wait until the weekend, so I went shopping today. Quite pricey to get all I needed since its my first time doing this. My brother gave me a food processor though, which will come in handy for sure! Bought the pot with the rack for processing the jars, the jars themselves, extra lids, a canning set with jar tongs, magnet thingee to pick lids out of hot water etc. Stocked up on pickle crisp perserving stuff (nice name huh? Yeah, it says something different on the label lol), Fruit fresh, Salsa seasonings, no sugar pectin, pickling vinegar and coarse salt, and on and on. Looks like I'm preparing to stock up for a massive food shortage or something lol.

Starting tonight with strawberry jam and overnight I will have strawberry butter going in the crockpot to put into jars in the morning. Tomorrow I'll be doing salsa in different seasonings. I bought just shy of 30 lbs of tomatoes, so I'll be at it a while haha.

I hope I have as much luck as you did!

 

[LittleDudesMom]

I like the idea of using the little 4 oz jars for mustards, vinegars, and dipping sauces to give as gifts!

Good luck - let me know who it works out this weekend!

Sharon

 

[Mattsmom277]

Thank you for the link Sharon!

I'm listening to the popping sounds of 2 dozen jars of sugar free strawberry jam popping away on my kitchen table. I think I did it right. Woot woot! I must get a better masher for smushing strawberries though let me you. My arms are about to fall off!!!

My other table is covered with tomatoes put out to finish ripening. I'll be making about 1 dozen large jars of salsa tomorrow, along with about 2 dozen smaller jars for gift giving etc.
I like the whole canning thing I'm learning. Although I must say I'm dreading all of the peeling of the tomato skins that I have ahead of me! lol

 

[LittleDudesMom]

I don't know how you did that many jars in one day! That's like 24 cups of smashed berries! I bet your arms are tired. Just wait until you do the finger test on the lid tomorrow! That's the greatest - knowing it worked! I only did a small recipe (4 1/2 pint jars) of each - the blueberry and peach/raspberry sugar free - first. Wanted to make sure it tasted ok and set correctly before making more to give away!

Sharon

 

[tawnya]

Mattsmom, you can put the tomatoes in boiling water for about 30 seconds. Then, cool them off under cold water, and the skins just slip off. Makes it much easier! It doesn't even make a difference in the end.

 

[SRL]

I'm listening to the popping sounds of 2 dozen jars of sugar free strawberry jam popping away on my kitchen table. I think I did it right. Woot woot! I must get a better masher for smushing strawberries though let me you. My arms are about to fall off!!!

I always cut them with a knife into smaller pieces on a cutting board, then transfer them into a 13 x 9 glass baking pan to smash with a metal potato masher.

We like our strawberry jam on the fresher side, so this year I smashed berries, divided them into 5 cups in freezer bags.

Congratulations on your first day going well!

 

[Mattsmom277]

I've heard the tomato hot water/cold water thing works well for peeling so intend to use it.

I can say my arms were exhausted from all that berry smashing even though I had cut them into more manageable pieces when I was cleaning them. Had to get S/O to put A535 on my shoulder blades last night as it was torture. But gosh my jam looks purdy lol. I didn't find it that bad at all to do that much jam at once, kind of felt if I had all the stuff out and prepped anyhow that in for a penny - in for a pound thing would work. I don't think I'll be doing that each time I make something though! lol