Apple Pie Filling - A Water Bath Food Preservation Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How to can apples without a pressure cooker? ›

Put drained apple slices in a large pot. For every 2 kg (5 lbs / 16 cups ) of drained apple slices in the pot, add ½ litre (2 cups / 1 US pint) of water. Bring to a boil, then start timing and let it boil for 5 minutes. Pack hot apple slices into half-litre (US pint) jars or 1 litre (US quart) jars.

Process pint and quart jars of filled apples in a boiling-water canner for 20 minutes (start timing when water returns to a boil).

Can you substitute tapioca, flour, or cornstarch for Clear Jel®? No, when canning pie filling, there is no substitute for Clear Jel®. Other thickeners like cornstarch clump when canning and may interfere with heat being able to reach throughout the jar.

All-purpose flour is an easy solution, as you're sure to have it in your pantry. Since it's lower in starch, you'll use more of it than you would higher-starch thickeners. Quick-cooking tapioca makes filling bright and clear, but also gives it a stippled and somewhat sticky texture.

A boiling water bath is simply a large pot (you can use a stockpot) with a rack on the bottom. Canning jars filled with food and with special canning lids secured are completely immersed in boiling water for an amount of time specified in the canning recipe. After processing, as the jars cool, a vacuum seal is formed.

Simply fill your mason jars as directed by whatever repine you're using, put the lids and rings on, and place the jars into the stock pot. Fill the pot with enough water to cover your jars by at least 2 inches. As long as your stock pot is deep enough for that, you are ready to can.

However, lemon juice is not an optional addition. Lemon juice is added to help preserve the apples' natural colour and to assure the acidity of the finished product, since different varieties and harvesting conditions can produce apples of lower acidity.” Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving.

Foods with a pH greater than 4.6 require pressure canning. When a food item is comprised solely or mainly of ingredients with a pH of 4.6 or lower, we refer to those food items as an acid food. Acid foods include apples, peaches, strawberries,lemons and most other fruits.

Any type of citrus juice—lemon, lime, or orange juice—will work here; pineapple juice will do the trick too. These fruit juices contain citric acid, which slows the chemical reaction and prevents browning. (You can also sprinkle the fruit with powdered citric acid, but it may leave a strong sour flavor.)

If you cannot find Clear Jel, another option is to can the pie filling without any thickener and then thicken it with tapioca or cornstarch before putting it into the pie shell.

What is clear Gel for pie filling? ›

Clear Jel^® is a chemically modified corn starch that produces excellent sauce consistency even after fillings are canned and baked. Other available starches break down when used in these pie fillings, causing a runny sauce consistency.

Instant ClearJel is made of only one ingredient: modified food starch. While modified food starch can be made from a number of ingredients, including wheat, potatoes, and tapioca, ClearJel is derived from corn that has been ground and processed to sort out specific starches with certain sought-after gelling properties.

Ideally, you want to be in the 45 minute to one hour range. The filling of the pie turned to mush because Granny Smith apples completely collapse and do turn to mush when fully cooked. (They are great for applesauce for that reason.) Many other apples will become soft but hold their apple shape - not Granny Smith.

Cornstarch makes for a shiny, glossy filling. A little goes a long way because it has twice the gelling power of flour. Flour thickens nicely but leaves more of a matte finish. You'll need to use twice as much as you would with cornstarch.

In a large kettle, per 5 pounds of sliced apples, add 1 pint water or 1 pint very light syrup (1/2 cup sugar per quart water) or 1 pint apple juice. Drain apples and add to the kettle. Boil gently 5 minutes. Stir to prevent burning.

Place the canning rack into the water bath canner, set the jars upright in the canner, and add water to cover the jars. Bring the canner to a simmer (180˚F) for 10 minutes, and keep hot until you are ready to fill them. Follow the manufacturer's directions for preparing the lids.

Cook Without Pressure Cooker: Can you pressure cook without a pressure cooker? A pressure cooker works by boiling water in a sealed unit so that it creates steam and cooks the food. The boiling point is higher in a pressure cooker than externally. You cannot pressure cook without using a pressure cooker.