Mixed fruit containing strawberries, bananas, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries all hot packed and water bathed, appear to be turning grey? Is this normal discoloration? Is it caused by mixing all these food together? Hot packing things I should've cold packed? Or just straight up spoilage?
by opawesome101
6 Comments
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Was canned a month ago
You can’t convince me that’s not fish guts. 🤮
I’d pay you a shiny $20 bill if you could choke any part of that down, but that’s beside the point – fresh bananas are not safe to can.
Look up a recipe before throwing random fruits in a jar 😉
I’m curious to see what anyone else says… So you just have mixed fruit cooked in water? No added sugar or acid? I’ve never seen this but I’m intrigued.
My understanding (which might be wrong) is that you need a minimum of an appropriate amount of sugar and lemon juice to make water bath canning safe, cooked to 220 degrees. Low acid fruits like banana are not usually recommended for water bath, but maybe ok with the other fruit which all have more acid and pectin — not sure. I believe the liquid should be covering the fruit as well, up to about 1/4 inch from the top of the jar.
Did you follow a recipe? Like I said, I’m very curious about this entire concept. It goes against everything I know about canning fruit, but I’m sure willing to consider otherwise.
Short answer is I don’t think it was properly canned and I’d chalk it up to a learning experience and toss it. Not because of the color leaching, but just the whole (apparent) process.
You don’t mention whether you used a tested recipe for canning, but I’m guessing you didn’t.
Tested recipes are evaluated not only for safe storage at room temperature, but they’ve also been evaluated for good flavor, good texture, and good keeping quality.
IMO you’d be better off to can the individual fruits assuming it’s possible to can them safely (bananas cannot be canned alone). There are tested recipes here: https://www.healthycanning.com/fruit
Or freeze the fruits instead. The berries generally are fine if frozen, but bananas don’t freeze well either.
That is questionable looking….what was the recipe and process? Can’t just throw random things together and call it a day. Ph of fruits, density of ingredients all play a role to minimize contamination. Also curious as to the exact proportions in the sugar syrup as well.
The big red flag for me you didn’t follow something correctly is the banana. I’m racking my brain whether bananas are even commercially available in canned chunks. Yes, banana is an ingredient in puréed baby food, BUT it’s puréed, and a commercial product made in an industrial setting that cannot be safely replicated in a home process.