So I’m interested in grinding up some fruits (strawberries or whatever) and just throwing them in a jar and preserving them. Basically I want to make a jam without pectin or sugar. How terrible of an idea is this?
So I’m interested in grinding up some fruits (strawberries or whatever) and just throwing them in a jar and preserving them. Basically I want to make a jam without pectin or sugar. How terrible of an idea is this?
If you want something that still tastes fresh and sweet, you can freeze your jars. Freezer jam usually uses pectin and sugar because that’s how you get jam texture. Pureed strawberries are really runny. You should also anticipate losing some of the sweetness of the strawberries, unless you can flash freeze them somehow. But you would lose that if you went the fermentation route anyway.
As written, this is a pretty terrible idea, though. You still need to do the sanitation process on the jars, and the prospect of getting kill-you-microbe soup is high without involving a preservative of some kind or a yeast to nudge the fermentation the right way. Strawberries are high in water and moderate in sugar, which makes them really hospitable to bacteria and fungus. Mold, yuck.
So I take it using a pressure canner is more of an attempt at creating an internally sterile environment rather than a guarantee? I wouldn’t mind freezing jars after canning, we’ve got a chest freezer that’s going to need some filling up in the near future.
Obviously I’m way ahead of myself here, but I’d like to get to the point where I can come up with reasonable recipes on my own instead of following instructions and trying to imagine why something is a terrible idea is part of familiarizing myself with the nuances of canning.
Someone else already touched on the pressure canner in another comment.
Sometimes there are areas where you need to follow the rules and guidelines for safety reasons and shouldn’t improvise, and canning is one of them. It’s kind of like how if you get a prescription from your doctor, you follow the directions and don’t get creative. If you don’t follow the directions, you might die.
The USDA has a big book called The Complete Guide to Home Canning. You need to get the most recent version. The last time it was revised was 2015, but they do revise the safety guidelines every so often, so you shouldn’t use a copy from the 1980s or anything like that. This is a comprehensive book based on science and it should be able to answer most of your questions. The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving is good too and has more recipes, but I would probably give preference to the USDA. The USDA website has a ton of resources too, but the book is good to have on hand.