A Beginner’s Guide to Bottling Fruit and Vegetables
With tips on How to Prepare and Preserve Food for Long-Term Use
Table of Contents
Introduction
Rules of Bottling
Types of Jars and Bottles
Sterilizing Tips
Equipment Necessary for Bottling
Methods of Sterilization
Hot Water Bath Method
Hot-Water Sterilization – Quick Method
Oven Method
Second Oven Method
Boiling Tomatoes
Tomato in Their Own Juice
Preserving Tomatoes in Brine
Tomato Purée
Tomato Juice
Bottling Methods for Vegetables
Blanching and Sterilizing Process for Vegetables
Water Bath Method
Acid Brine – Lemon Juice Method
Using Bottled Vegetables
Preparation of Fruit and Temperature Chart
Timetable for Sterilizing Vegetables in Pressure Cooker
Conclusion
Author Bio-
Introduction
We are everlastingly grateful to that homemaker millenniums ago, who decided that she needed to preserve food, for the coming winter. That was a little step for her, but it was a giant step for mankind. Soon people began to preserve food in stoneware jars.
The principle of preserving these fruit/food items depended firstly upon the destruction by need of all the mold and bacteria in the air, fruit, or water. As technological development and experimental sciences began to develop in ancient civilizations, they discovered how to make glass containers and bottles more than 5000 years ago.
Naturally, at the same time, the cook in the kitchen was experimenting on food stuffs. It was only by trial and error that she learned that if she kept items of food in a moist atmosphere, it would soon grow moldy and perish real fast. Also, she learned that the exclusion of air during the sealing off the bottles prevented this mold from growing on the surface of the food.
Along with that, she found out that salt, vinegar, wine and oil were extremely useful mediums in which she could preserve food, and that is how the art of been a preserving food in the shape of jams, jellies, pickles and chutneys came into existence. So this art has come down to us through the ages, and that is why many families have closely guarded secret recipes for pickling or preserving food. And that is when our grannies told us in grave tones – “remember, children, the containers in which you put this jam should be totally sealed really properly. That is how you are going to keep it for a long time.”
Natural vinegar and natural oil was used as an important medium since ancient times to preserve fruit, pickles and other natural food items. Along with that, salt and sugar were used as preservatives.
