Magic Tree Clock

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Follow-Up on Preserved Fruits in Alcohol

Well, I preserved 12 quart-sized jars of apples, peaches, pears, and plums in alcohol in early September, expecting them to be ready for late December (as was suggested on one website). I opened a few today, and the first one bubbled and overflowed when I removed the lid! Now what? I opened another and it did not do this, but the fruit on top was brown compared with the normal looking fruit on the bottom. I feel that my economic practice was not so economical.

Was the bubbling a normal thing? As I search for answers, there is nothing on the internet. Is no one else having this problem? I want to cook with these fruits and the rum or vodka in which they are preserved. The Etsy.com website group has an "Eatsy" blog because they believe in home economic practices, but they didn't help me with the assumed bubble problem.

Astray dot com has some info on alcohol-preserved fruit, but nothing about what it should actually look like when ready. Or if the bubbling is normal - do mine mean that fermentation has occurred? And what exactly does that mean? As for now, I feel that I have done a poor economic job in preserving fruit this way, and I'll be stuck with 12 Mason Ball pint jars (not that I won't find other uses) and in the meantime, maybe this kind of preservation will become more popular and more information will appear on the internet.