I keep fruit butters and jam in the fridge for a really long time...like months. I bet others here would find that unsafe, but mold is my biggest concern with fruit spreads, so I figure if there's a lot of mold I will see it, and if not I will probably not get sick. I would guess the official rule is something less than a month - anybody know?

If you know you won't use it very quickly, how about putting it in two half-pint jars and freezing one of them?

By the way I use full-sugar products. Fake sugar is not as hygroscopic so I wouldn't expect it to last as long.

Melissa

Well, I finally found out how to work the search engine (properly).

(Help link?!? Piffle! An experienced surfer like myself doesn't need any Help link!... ::click::... Oh! Instructions on how to use the search engine.)

So type in:
("acid blend") ksrogers

Amazing the number of people that have purchased Fruit-Fresh, including me I guess. Fruit Salad anyone? To be honest, I halfway suspected it wouldn't be useful as a "preservative" when I bought it. Now I know. I also found the link to the brewing/wine making site (thanks for that). They have ALL the acids AND Calcium Chloride. They also have a $15.00 minimum. If I decide to get into this a bit more (looking for a DICED tomato recipe) then I'll probably load up. For now I think I'll try a touch of lemon juice.

Yes, I plan on using sugar. I'm not on any special diet and I haven't found any substitute I like. How long it would keep, and trying to find a way to keep it "fresh" longer was the goal. At the moment I don't know whether this will be treat food or shoveling it in by the spoonful (at midnight of course). For "how long it lasts" I have seen 1 week, 2 weeks, and several weeks. Go figure. Freezing fruit spreads and jams isn't something that's ever occurred to me (thanks Melissa). Looks like I have enough options to get started anyway. Hmmm... I have 3 days off next weekend. :D

Parting shot:

ksrogers wrote:

Imagine cinnamon toast and apple butter!!

You are an evil man! Tempting an innocent soul such as myself! (trying to look innocent)

Right now I'm tweaking the sandwich bread. When that's done I can move on to pizza dough, cinnamon/cinnamon raisin bread, deli rye bread, those nifty loaves they use at sub sandwich stores (ad infinitum). Baby steps Sir. ;)

Regards,
Tim :)

In our house a mere pint of Apple Butter would last about 48 hours.... what's not to keep? '-)

I make pear butter the same as apple butter just using pears. As Melissa said it will last a long time. I had a jar pushed to the back of the refrigerator for at least a month or more and it looked and smelled fine. I ate it with no ill effects.

The acid blend is found at wine making supply companies. I used a little cinnamon oil in my apple butter as well as some molasses and a little brown sugar, but mostly Splenda. For a refrigerator to keep things cold and reduce spoiling, it should be set to a temp of about 35-37 degrees and no higher. At that temp, its just slightly above 32 which is freezing. Mine is set at 36 and I have no problems with low sugar things spoiling. The added acid is also a help to prevent any spoilage in low/no sugar spreads. Ascorbic is used for things like apple sauce, peaches, apricots and any other fruits that darken when exposed to air. If you use lemon juice, be sure its the bottled type, as that one is the only type that has a guaranteed acidity. Fresh lemon juice and vary greatly in acidity.

Don't tell our food safety friends, but I have had two jars of apple butter in my fridge at the same time. I get one jar a year from friends who make it in a huge kettle. So I have eaten apple butter that's a year old and lived to tell the tale.

Melissa

I have a 20+ year old unopened jar of apple sauce in my cellar. It is store bought and is now just starting to darken. I think my dad bought it back in the 1980's. Now, THATS OLD!

If you have too much, freeze it. The texture is slightly softer but not by much.

Greetings All,

I FINALLY got around to making the Apple Butter and wanted to give you all a big THANKS! Last weekend got consumed by errand, appointments, and social obligations so I was unable to get any cooking done. This weekend I put up the 'Do Not Disturb' sign, locked the door, and turned the phone off. Of course I didn't spend it all cooking. A lot of the time was spent turning nothing (counter space) into something (counter space). Unbelievable the amount of junk (and old canned goods) that accumulates in... Well, we won't go there. ;)

Anyway, the recipe I chose was a basic one from the Ball canning book (starting simple). It didn't turn out GREAT and it wasn't terrible. I towards the end I thought it was tasting too sweet so I added an additional tablespoon of lemon juice. Maybe good, maybe not. There also seemed to be too much cinnamon and I might have cooked it down to far. It spread okay warm but I haven't tried it from the fridge. Anyway, fresh bread cut both the sugar and the cinnamon so I think I worried needlessly. There WAS an aftertaste of bottled lemon juice which I attribute to adding it in so late in the process. Over all it was tasty but I think it could be better... Next time. :D

For now, I have most of it in the freezer in 4 ounce Rubbermaid containers. I'll vacuum seal those later and thaw as required.

Once again, Thanks for all your help.

Regards,
Tim :)

Heck I don't even keep mine in the fridge....

Instead of the the lemon juice, try adding plain citric acid. It has no real taste and is just sour. Even for that, I like a balanced acid blend of ciric, malic, and tarteric acid. I get this from wine making supply stores. It has a more natural fruit acid taste. I use it in many of my sugarless jams too. It adds 'character' to most.

Thanks Ken. I have the link you supplied from an earlier post but I haven't actually ordered anything yet. Part of the problem is the $15.00 minimum order. The other part is I'm not sure yet how much of the various acids and such I'll be needing so I'm waiting for a bit to find out what and how much I'll use. There *WAS* a scale on the site that looked attractive to me. My current scale has a 3 pound limit and is only accurate to .1 ounce. The scale listed is accurate to 1 *gram* and has a 11 pound upper limit. I haven't quite talked myself into it yet but I imagine I will eventually. When I do, I'll probably stock up on other stuff as well.

One other thing I saw was a "complete" kit for a Pale Ale. I like Pale Ales so there may be more business for them (from me) in the future. Anyway, thanks for posting the link. Granted, you didn't do it for me specifically, but I *did* find it and it *does* look useful.

Regards,
Tim :)

If you're feeling decedent, instead of sugar, use a pint of apple butter and mix it up with sliced, fresh-or-frozen apples, and proceed onwards to make a deep dish pie.

Says Dave of the 40 pints of apple butter.

The wine making supply store is nearby me here, just about 8 miles away. When I get the acid blend, it comes in a premixed granulated product. I cna go through an 8 ounce bag of it in less tan a year. It keeps forever. The blend looks almost like citric acid crystals alone. They also have tannic acid which is brown color, but I avoid using that as its not good with much home canning. The wine making supply site also sells concentrates for carbonated beverages like birch beer and root beer and others. These can be made with either the traditional yeast sugar, or use carbinated water, or even a CO2 cartridge charged seltzer bottle. The supplier also has a nice big motorozed strainer suitable for juicing grapes and tomatoes. I used to make many home made wines years ago, but now must watch my potassium intake. They also sell the metabisulfates for preventing oxiation when drying potatoes. The beer and wine kits contain everything but the bottles and caps usually. My brother used to make some beers, but realized that his creations were his own taste preferences and were a bit more costly than store bought ready made beers.
I like to also add the acid blend to some no sugar beverages like Crystal Light. Without it, they tend to be overly sweet and/or bland. With a little added acid, its a much tastier thirst quencher.

I just finished making apple butter and it came out better than the last time. I put the apples in my nutiblast and then cooked it with my spices for about 2 hours stirring every few minutes. I left the cover ajar because of the splattering as it thickened. loved the smooth texture. ruby