Why do canning recipe yields vary so dramatically?

melissa-dallas

Well-known member
I notice this all the time with jam.

Tonight I made this blueberry syrup. I had three pints of blueberries. I followed the recipe exactly. When she says you should end up with 4 or 5 cups thick juice. I had 2 1/2 so used equal amount of sugar.I had maybe a third cup of pulp left after putting through the sieve. I scraped the sieve well. Ended up with 2 1/2 half pints instead of 5 or 6.

Weird. It is very good, by the way, but I would have used my small kettle for water bath instead of my big canner.

If you don’t have enough syrup to fill the final jar, refrigerate it and use within a month. Use canned jars within a year.

6 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen

2 tablespoons fresh-squeezed lemon juice

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

4-5 cups sugar, to taste

6 pint-size canning jars and lids, sterilized

Have boiling water-bath canner ready. Rinse fruit in cold water, removing any stray stems and blemished berries. Drain well. Reserve 2 cups berries. Place the rest in a food processor and pulse briefly (or mash with a potato masher). Place in a 2-quart saucepan with lemon juice and zest. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce to a low simmer and cook 5 minutes. Press cooked berries through a fine-mesh colander using the back of a wooden spoon to push through as much pulp and juice as possible. Discard dry pulp. You should have 4 to 5 cups thick juice. Return juice to pan and add an equal amount of sugar. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer, add 2 cups reserved whole blueberries, and cook 2 minutes. Divide syrup among prepared jars, distributing whole fruit evenly and leaving ½ inch of head space. Wipe any spills from lip of jars. Seal with 2-part canning lids and place in a boiling water bath that covers tops of jars by 2 inches. Boil 15 minutes. Remove jars from bath and turn upside-down for 1 minute. Turn upright and cool. Check seals. Variations: Other berries may be substituted or mixed with the blueberries. Recipe may be cut in half. You may substitute a heat-proof sweetener such as Splenda for the sugar. Syrup can also be put up in half-pint jars.

Per tablespoon: 23 calories (0 percent from fat), 0 fat (0 saturated, 0 monounsaturated), 0 cholesterol, 0 protein, 5.9 g carbohydrates, 0 fiber, 0 sodium.

 
I have noticed that Blueberries especially suffer from:

They can be drier from crop to crop to year to year. If they are juicy, more liquid to make syrup. If they are dry, less syrup (and thicker jam!).

With blueberries, you could sneak in a little sugar during the initial cooking to release juice and thus sweat out a little more liquid, but if they are dry, they are dry.

Last night I made a batch of blueberry jam with just sugar and berries and those little beggars were not very juicy! Lots of pulp, but not lots of free water. Jam tasted great, but I am betting it is a tad thicker than I like.

 
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