Tips for successful sweet spreads

By Carol Ann Burtness, University of Minnesota Extension

ST. PAUL, Minn. (6/1/2009) — Fruits can be preserved into sweet spreads by adding sweeteners and thickeners.

Jellies combine juice and sugar to create a clear, firm shape. Jams combine crushed or chopped fruits and sugar and are less firm than jellies. Conserves are jams combined with ingredients such as nuts, raisins or coconut. Preserves usually include small, whole fruit in a thick jelly-type syrup. Marmalades are soft jellies with pieces of fruit. Fruit butters are fruit pulp cooked with sugar into a spread.

Sweet spreads can be made with frozen fruits or 100-percent purchased fruit juice. However, most people think about making jams, jellies and other spreads from fresh fruit when it is in season.

There is labor and cost involved in making your own fruit spreads. It is important to follow an approved USDA recipe that will ensure your spread is safe and a high quality product. Recipes are found at the National Center for Home Food Preservation at http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/, the Ball Blue Book, or on commercial pectin packages.

For successful sweet spreads, follow these tips:

• Choose firm, ripe fruit. Over-ripe fruit will contribute to an off-flavor and a softer product.
• Measure ingredients exactly. Any adjustments could affect whether the finished product is a success or not
• Undercooking results in a softer product. Overcooking or cooking too long can lead to a product being stiff, tough, sticky, poor color or flavor or crystals.
• Never use a sugar substitute unless you use special pectins for less or no-sugar-needed recipes.
• Paraffin or wax sealing of jars is no longer considered an acceptable choice for sealing sweet spreads. Any pinholes, shrinkage or cracks in the wax allows airborne molds to contaminate and grow on the product. Research indicates that mold growth on sweet spreads provides for the possible risk from mold poisons. USDA and University of Minnesota Extension recommends a boiling water canning process for sweet spreads. Process jars in a boiling water bath for 6 minutes if using hot, sterile jars or 10 minutes if using unsterilized or cold jars.
• Processing spreads in the boiling water bath is preferred over the inversion method which involves turning a filled jar upside down on its lid. The vacuum seals of inverted jars tend to be weaker and are more likely to allow some mold growth if airborne molds contaminated the surface when the jar was filled and closed.

Any use of this article must include the byline or following credit line:
Carol Ann Burtness is a food science educator with University of Minnesota Extension.

Media Contact: Catherine Dehdashti, U of M Extension (612) 625-0237, ced@umn.edu

URL: http:// www.extension.umn.edu./extensionnews/2009/successful-sweet-spreads.html  This page was updated June 1, 2009 .
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