Sugar-free fruit butter

In short

• Sugar-free fruit butter = fruit cooked down to a quarter or a fifth. Roughly 4–5 kg (9–11 lb) of plums give 1 kg (2.2 lb) of thick butter.
• Only acid fruit: plums, apples, quinces, apricots, sour cherries. Pears and figs need added acid, and pumpkin, carrot and beetroot must never go into jars as a butter.
• Thick butter goes into sterilised, hot jars, then a water bath of 5 minutes (jars up to 0.5 L, pints) or 10 minutes (0.72–1 L, quarts) from a full rolling boil, plus extra time for altitude.
• Sound fruit only: rotten and mouldy fruit stays out of the pan, because mould leaves toxins that cooking does not destroy.
• An opened jar goes in the fridge and is used within 3–4 weeks; mould on the surface means the whole jar goes.

What's inside

Chapters

1. How fruit butter keeps without sugar
2. Fruit for butter
3. Pans and equipment
4. Preparing the fruit
5. Recipe: plum butter in a kettle
6. Recipe: fruit butter in a pan and in the oven
7. Apple, quince and mixed butters
8. When the butter is done
9. Filling, water bath and storage
10. Common mistakes
11. Printable checklist

Worksheets

• Fruit butter calendar
• Fruit and jar calculator
• Date calculator
• Cooking diary
• Fruit butter inventory
• Jar labels