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Syrups for canning fruit give you the best neutral flavor, and bring out the natural sweetness in your fruit preserves.
Hot Pack Canning Peaches. Not the tongs, which help load the hot fruit into jars without burning hands.
Canning fruit in a simple syrup of sugar and water is a great way to preserve the flavor, color, and texture of the original fruit. Fruit canned in water can taste washed out, but even a small amount of sugar can help retain the flavor, color, and texture of the original fresh fruit.
It can be a challenge to figure out how much sugar you need for a canner batch of home-canned fruit, but there’s a simple table that will give you easy-to-read measurements for each type of syrup.
The sugar measurements for both standard 9-pint and 7-quart canner batches are listed below:
If you’re more of a text-based learner, here are the measurements written out:
For a 9-Pint Canner Batch, you’ll need the following amounts:
- Extra-light syrup: 3/4 cups sugar to 6 1/2 cups water
- Light syrup: 1 1/2 cups sugar to 5 3/4 cups water
- Medium syrup: 2 1/4 cups sugar to 5 1/4 cups water
- Heavy syrup: 3 1/4 cups sugar to 5 cups water
- Extra-Heavy Syrup: 4 1/4 cups sugar to 4 1/4 cups water
For a 7-Quart Canner Batch, you’ll need the following amounts:
- Extra-light syrup: 1 1/4 cups sugar to 10 1/2 cups water
- Light syrup: 2 1/4 cups sugar to 9 cups water
- Medium syrup: 3 3/4 cups sugar to 8 1/4 cups water
- Heavy syrup: 5 1/4 cups sugar to 7 3/4 cups water
- Extra-Heavy Syrup: 6 3/4 cups sugar to 6 1/2 cups water
How to Make Syrup for Canning Fruit
To make syrups for canning fruit, first, you need to decide on the type of syrup you’re using (from extra light to extra heavy).
Next, choose the appropriate amounts from the table above, and mix the water and sugar together in a saucepan. Stir until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is at a full rolling boil.
For raw pack, pour the sugar syrup over the fruit in your canning jars.
For hot pack, add the fruit to the boiling syrup and return the mixture to a boil for the amount of time specified by your recipe (usually just a minute or two).
Fill the jars, leaving the recommended headspace (usually 1/2 inch for canning fruit).
Hot Pack Canning plums in syrup
Recommended Syrups by Fruit
The type of syrup to use depends on your own personal taste, as well as the type of fruit you’re preserving.
Personally, I like to use extra light syrup because it approximates the natural sugar in the fruit. If you can in plain water, the flavor (and natural sugar) in the fruit washes out into the canning liquid. However, if you can add extra light syrup, it has about the same amount of sugar as the fruit itself, so they’re in balance. The fruit doesn’t get sweeter, but it doesn’t lose sweetness either.
I think it gives you the freshest, most fruit-forward flavor.
Since extra light syrup doesn’t add much sweetness, many people don’t like it for very tart fruits (like gooseberries or sour cherries). And, some people just prefer sweeter home canned fruit. It’s all up to your personal tastes.
(These syrups also work for canning vegetables that are preserved like fruits, like when canning rhubarb, as well as pressure-canned sweet potatoes and canning pumpkin.)
These are the recommendations given by the National Center for Home Food Preservation for the best syrup for various types of home-canned fruit:
Extra Light Syrup
Perfect for sweet fruits, or for when you’re trying to can fruit as close to their natural flavor as possible. Obviously, with less sugar, this is the lowest-calorie option.
They don’t actually have any specific recommendations here, other than this being the most “natural” option.
Light Syrup
The National Center for Food preservation reccomends this syrup for the “sweetest fruits.” But they also note that if you’re used to commertially canned fruit, you should try it first to see if your family likes it.
Medium Syrup
This is what they use commercially for the sweetest fruits like sweet apples, sweet cherries, berries, and grapes.
Heavy Syrup
It is used most commonly with tart fruits like tart apples, apricots, sour cherries, gooseberries, nectarines, peaches, pears, and plums.
Extra Heavy Syrup
This makes somewhat candied fruits, like maraschino cherries. The fruit texture changes and hardens somewhat when you get to extra heavy syrup, and even people used to commercially canned fruit will find this a bit over the top for most uses.
Alternative Sweeteners
If you’re avoiding refined cane sugar, you can use alternative sweeteners like honey, maple syrup or agave in place of sugar. Those taste sweeter than cane sugar, and most sources recommend replacing a cup of sugar with 2/3 to 3/4 cup of honey.
I’d suggest choosing a light honey, like a clover honey, or a light maple syrup (grade A extra fancy), as darker grades will change the flavor of your home canned fruits.
Most modern calorie-free sweeteners haven’t been specifically tested for canning, and though many people do use them, I can’t comment on their safety or appropriateness for home canning recipes. This includes things like Splenda, swerve, and Monkfruit.
At this point, most people assume they’re “probably fine,” but there hasn’t been any true testing to date to verify that. Most of them do impact the flavor of home canned goods, and some aren’t great when heated (like sweet-n-low).
If you’re trying to avoid sugar, I’d suggest canning fruit in water or fruit juice, and white grape juice is one of the best choices for minimizing processed sugar while still keeping good flavor in home canned goods.
Fruit Canning Recipes
Now that you know how to make a sugar syrup for canning fruit, try it out with any of these fruit canning recipes:
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