Canned Apricots

I still have a load of fresh apricots left from my 26 pound flat. You can only eat so much apricot jam, which I made a batch of yesterday. So it’s on to canning them, but seriously how many canned apricots can one person have? What in the world else can you do with apricots?? Oh my goodness, I bought way too many apricots. The seven pints I canned today used up maybe 5 pounds. I still have like 12 pounds left.

This time I followed a recipe I found in You Can Can by Better Homes and Gardens:

 

I desperately bought this after I foolishly thought I could check out a canning book from the library. Yeah… right. Height of the summer and I thought I could snag a canning book from the library, plucking it right off the shelf all lonely and patiently waiting for me. What was I thinking? :)

I needed a book and I needed one fast. I had fruit sitting at home ripening by the minute. This one has photos of every single recipe and the title helped calm my nerves after realizing 26 pounds is A LOT. Perfect. So even though it’s too new to have high Amazon ratings, I think I did pretty good. I had a hard time using it for jam, since I had to make it hard and go with no/low-sugar jam, which isn’t included in the book. But it made for a good cross- reference.

For canning apricots, I followed the directions for peaches, noting their tables saying that apricots need to be “hot packed” not “raw packed” like peaches. I crossed-referenced with this resource- National Center for Home Food Preservation out of the University of Georgia (definitely bookmark worthy!). Their directions matched, so I felt good to go.

Wash and cut ripe apricots in half or fourths. I ended up using about 5 pounds, which filled exactly the 7 pint jars I had.

Then pour in a large pot along with the syrup you want. I went with something between light and medium. I used 5 cups of water with 2 cups of sugar (Syrup ratios here). Bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, get your canning pot boiling lids and rings sterilized (as you can see my stove top is pretty busy).

Once boiling, begin pouring into sterilized jars, cover with lids and rings (this is called “hot packing”). I learned quickly to fill using both slotted spoon and a ladle in order to control the perfect amount of fruit verses syrup.

Place in canning pot and “process” (boil) according to altitude. I’m just above sea level, so 20 minutes was all I needed for pint-sized jars. Let cool on cooling rack. Check that lids seal.

Important note: These steps are merely my narration of the steps I took. These are not word-for-word directions from a reputable source (like a published book or government website). Please consult those when canning. I come across a couple of other blogs (even one from a very reputable local restaurant) with directions using the “raw packing”, which my sources specifically say not to do (don’t know why, maybe it’s harmless), proving to me not to follow a blog’s sole directions for anything canning related.