Fruit Cocktail in Syrup

I decided it was finally time to do some canning and got out my list.  I've wanted to do fruit cocktail all year.  There were some good deals and I picked up several pounds of assorted fruit.

Ok, this might not have been cheaper than buying cans, but I got to choose what went in it.  I remember the joy some years ago when I realized anyone can buy maraschino cherries.  They aren't at some secret bartender shop and aren't all that expensive if you get the store brand.  They turned the syrup and most of the fruit pink, but I don't care.  I got to put in plenty of grapes and less of the pears and peaches.  I like canned peaches on their own, but not as much in fruit cocktail.  And I made the pieces a lot bigger.

Because I was canning, I had to go through the Ball book and make adjustments.  Ball only lists individual fruits in syrup.  When you mix, you have to follow the guidelines for the pickiest item you're putting in the jar.  Therefore, I had to do these as hot-pack and for 20 minutes of processing time.

Waiting for water to boil is the most time-consuming part of canning.  I should probably get a more narrow pot for smaller canning sessions.  Even the gallon for blanching the fruits took forever.  Of the six hours I spent that day on four canning recipes, two of those hours were easily just waiting for water to boil.

Obviously, you can scale this down if you aren't having a party or canning.  You can use the basic method, simmer the fruits directly in the simple syrup instead of water, and refrigerate for up to a week.

9-10 C assorted fruit like peaches, pears, plums, grapes, mango, pineapple
1 lemon
1 10 oz jar maraschino cherries
6 C water
3 C sugar

1.  If canning, prepare canner and jars for a 5 pint yield.  Because in the weird world of headspace, 9 cups of product equals 10 cups canned.

2.  Set up a large bowl of water and cut the lemon in half.  Squeeze juice into the water and drop the rest of the lemon into it.  This will prevent any browning as you prepare the fruit.

3.  Peel and seed any fruits that require it, then chop into pieces of desired size.  I was surprised how easy it was to peel pears, since I don't peel things often.  The peaches were frozen, so I just chopped those in half and tossed them in the bowl.  For grapes, remove the stems.  The pineapple didn't really need the lemon juice treatment, but I chucked it in the bowl so I could judge proportions.  I ended up with about equal amounts of everything except a little less peaches.

4.  Bring about a gallon of water to a boil in a large pot.  Maybe this should have been part of step 1.  Drain the fruit and discard the lemon.  Pour fruit into boiling water.  It's going to stop boiling from the cold fruit and you're going to have to wait a while for it to come back up to temp.  So while that's happening, stir together 6 C water and the sugar in another saucepan and bring that up to a low boil to be the simple syrup.  I added about 1/4 C amaretto to my syrup for the hell of it.  It boils off and you're left with the faint almondy taste.

5.  And since your fruit probably still isn't boiling, much less the canner, go ahead and drain the cherries.  I chose to cut mine in half because there's a teeny chance one might have a pit in it.

6.  Simmer the fruit 5 minutes.  This is more important for canning, but it does improve the texture of stone fruit to poach it.  And as part of the canning process, it means you won't have as much shrinkage in the jar compared to raw pack.

7.  Drain fruit, stir in the cherries, and get the hot jars ready.  Ladle 1/2 C of syrup in the bottom of each jar, then fill to a generous 1/2" headspace with fruit.  Add more syrup to the 1/2" mark.  It won't cover the fruit because fruit floats.  Wipe jar rims well, center lids, and screw on bands fingertip-tight.  That extra half-pint jar was pineapple jam that didn't seal the first time, so I was reprocessing it.

8.  Process jars in boiling canner 20 minutes for pints and 25 minutes for quarts.  Remove lid and let rest 5 minutes before removing from canner.  I must have been using some awesome vintage lids, because they sealed before I even took out the jars.  Cool at least 12 hours, remove bands and wash jars, and store in a cool, dry place for up to a year.

9.  For non-canning, you can skip simmering in water if you wish and simmer in the simple syrup instead. Cool to room temperature and store in the fridge for up to a week.

Difficulty rating  :)