Canning Recipes Without Sugar

Canning is a big part of my homespun seasonal lifestyle. Eating healthy is also a big part of my lifestyle. Canning and healthy eating habits can go together. While some sugar is tasty and can be a part of a well-balanced diet, it doesn’t have to be added to every jar in the pantry. Not only is it possible to can without added sugar, it’s downright easy and tasty, too.

While sugar is a preservative when canning it isn’t necessary. The canning process does the preservation not the sugar, so it’s totally safe to skip addedsugar.

Every canner knows sugar helps jams and jellies gel. This is a scientific fact. However, turning fruit or fruit juices into gelled, delicious fruit spreads can be done with Pomona’s Pectin. When using Pomona’s Pectin follow their instructions for canning times as the lack of sugar can affect the time jams and jellies need to be in the canner.

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Forget worries about gel point and make fruit butters instead. Fruit butters are made from pureed fruit that is cooked slowly until thick. These are great ways to simply let the fruit flavors and natural sugars shine. For safety sake, rather than canning no-sugar fruit butters for 10 minutes (like most sugar loaded recipes suggest), can them for the length of time recommended for the particular fruit.

Don’t add sugar syrup to those jars sweet cherries, quartered peaches, or chopped pears. Instead, fill the jars with fruit juice as the liquid. Unsweetened apple juice works great for most fruits and is often a very frugal choice. It’s not necessary to match the juice though it can be done.Follow the canning times recommended for canning the particular fruit as usual.

Skip the sugar syrup or fruit juice and use plain water as the canning liquid. This method can sometimes make softer fruit in my experience but it is completely doable. Follow the canning times recommended for canning the particular fruit as usual.

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If you choose to do this method, you will not likely win a blue ribbon at the fair – if that’s important to you.

I’ve never understood why pizza sauce needs to have 3 cups of sugar to 8 cups of tomato sauce. While a touch of honey can sometimes mellow out tart tomatoes, it isn’t necessary. There’s no reason to add sugar to your soups or stews unless it’s a personal preference. Even if the tested and approved recipe has sugar, skip it but can for the appropriate time and/or pressure.

Again, the sugar doesn’t do the preservation work, the canning does so skip added sugar in homemade fruit sauces, like applesauce. No added sugar to the applesauce makes for a healthy snack and something that can also easily be added to many baked goods as a replacement for oil.

Blueberry Jam Sugar Free (ball / Bernardin)

As the canning season kicks into high gear remember to fill that pantry with foods you’ll enjoy eating and keep it healthy too.Can without added sugar and have homemade foods that you can feel good about serving and eating in the months to come.

I have very successful used this product and will use it for all my jam I make. You don’t miss the sugar at all, the honey gives it enough. Win Win!

Sweet little gal up in Canada turned me on to Steam juicing with a special 3-chamber steam juicing pot. It makes absolutely wonderful concentrated juice like I had never before experienced in my life and even the stuff you purchase in the store is still watered down, but let me tell you the first thing I noticed was how sweet it was and how little sugar I had to use to make it lip-smacking-delicious. My husband is Type 1 insulin dependent and I have to really watch-out not to use anymore sugar than is absolutely necessary. What I think is happening is the steam process does not agitate the skins like in other processes, thus releasing extra bitter & tartness. Plants actually do this to keep birds & animals from eating them. I spent about $70 on my steam unit, but it paid for itself immediately in the quality. If I had known how awesime this cool tool was I would have gotten one years ago!

Low Sugar Peach Jam

Wanting to make Hot pepper Jam but I don't want to use all the sugar they call for. Can you help? Thanks.❤️

I would need to see the specific recipe you're trying to use. BUT here's the thing with hot pepper jams and jellies... hot peppers are a low acid food which normally require pressure canning, adding the sugar in large amounts raises the acidity level to make it safe for water bath canning. I'd be careful about changing up that recipe too much for safety sake.

Without the sugar, does the bottled fruit stay good as long as with sugar? I was taught with the sugar the fruit is good up to a year.Now, don’t get me wrong, I love canning low sugar jams. I actually experimented with NO sugar jam a few years ago, and I discovered that my family prefers SOME sugar. These days, we stick with lessening the sugar instead of totally eliminating the sugar in our jam.

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When making jams and jellies, the sugar acts as a preservative. There are options for making a lower sugar product, but it just doesn’t last as long on the shelf or in the fridge.

Most foods, as long as they’ve been canned properly and don’t show any signs of spoilage or broken seals, will last longer than a year. (You just want to make a plan to use it up after that first year.)

Personally, I’m comfortable using jam that is 2-4 years old, just because there’s so much sugar in it and I’ve never had any problems using jam of that age. Many people will keep it even longer.

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However….. As I’ve experimented with low sugar/no sugar jam, I’ve found it doesn’t last as long in the jar. The food starts deteriorating, as you can see by the discoloration in the pictures. (That’s where the food has oxidized at the top of the jar.)

I made peach pineapple 4 years ago, and now it’s a little brown on the top of the jar. The quality isn’t as good, and I know my family probably won’t use it because it looks unappealing. 🙂 In the future, I shouldn’t make that much at once. I also had this problem with honey peach and low-sugar peach. Sugar-free jam might even be more pronounced.

Once opened, low sugar jam doesn’t last as long in the fridge either. When you open jars of full sugar jam, they keep for several weeks. But I’ve noticed that low sugar/no sugar jams start molding and spoiling much more quickly.

Canning Hot Sauce

I still like and recommend low sugar/sugar free and jellies. Just don’t make too much…or make it in large jars. Since my kids have grown and we have only three people at home now and don’t eat much jam anyway, I use very small jars.

When you are going to make a low sugar jam and want a pectin product. I highly recommend Pomona’s Pectin. Any Ball product is fine too, but it does include dextrose, so it depends on just how purely no sugar you want to create.

Pomona’s Pectin is for those who want to cut sugar in their canning! Designed to work with very low amounts of sweetener, this is perfect for making low sugar jams and jellies.I can remember as a child biting into a fresh ripe peach, letting the juice dribble down my chin and thinking life just doesn’t get better than this. As an adult my opinion hasn’t changed. I LOVE fresh, the problem with fresh peaches is that they are only in season for a little while. Thank goodness that they can be preserved by canning! This week my sister and I canned fresh peaches without using sugar and I wanted to share my recipe with you.

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Growing up my mom was quite the canner. Working all day making peaches, pickles, tomatoes, grape juice, applesauce. She was always hot and tired by the time she was done. I suppose as a child I never appreciated all the work that went into the whole process. As an adult the thought of standing in my kitchen all day carvin’ up peaches just didn’t sound appealing. Let’s just say it took me many years as a mother myself to get the desire to can. But eventually I missed the flavor of homemade peaches, pears and applesauce so I knew I had to try.

My sister came to visit me this past week and we decided we would can peaches together. All I can say is that it is SO much better to can with someone. Especially someone who makes you giggle and laugh all the way through the process. We both had to fight the urge to eat them all up too…one for the canning jar, one for me. Two for the canning jar… ahem.

As I am starting on a more real foods lifestyle I wanted my recipe to

Sugar Free Strawberry Jam Canning Recipe