Candying fruit

[TylerK]

This being the tail end of cherry season up here I am now in the process of candying cherries for my annual Christmas baking. Having read some of the threads recently on food safety, botulism and dangerous temperature zones, I have some questions about the safety of the candying method.

I'm using the standard candying method that I've read on here and other websites where over a period of a couple weeks the concentration of a sugar syrup containing the fruit is gradually increased until the product is shelf stable. Every two days I pour off the syrup, add more sugar, bring to a boil and then pour back over the fruit. Is this boiling every two days enough to make sure it remains safe, or are there other safety measures I should be looking into? Is the natural acidity of the fruit enough to ward off any botulism?

Tyler

[andiesenji]

I personally have never heard of a case of botulism from a tree fruit that is candied. The temp of the boiling syrup and the time it remains at that temp is far more than enough to kill any pathogen as well as destroy any mold spores, in addition to the acid content of the fruit itself.

That is why jams, jellies, preserves and marmalades were not actually "canned" and vacuum sealed until recent times.

The only specific food borne illnesses I have ever heard associated with a tree fruit was from apple juice or cider from windfall apples that had been raked up off the ground an insufficiently washed and/or cooked. Most of the people who were ill were the folks processing it who sampled it before it had been fully processed with sufficient heat.

There was also the Odwalla incident back in the '90s but that was due to E.Coli and again was from fruit that had fallen on the ground and hadn't been properly wash and was not pasteurized.

Fruit picked from trees and bushes and that does not come into contact with the ground is unlikely to harbor botulism. There can be other pathogens, from bird droppings and etc., but those are easily washed away.

Edited August 9, 2011 by andiesenji (log)

[TylerK]

Thanks for the reply andiesenji. It's definitely a relief to know I'm not poisoning anyone. Can I also assume that if by any chance some organism survives the boilings that they will be killed off when the sugar concentration gets high enough?

Tyler

[andiesenji]

Yes, otherwise one gets rapid fermentation if the humidity is high enough.

In the old days, jams, jellies &etc were simply covered with paper, and later with melted paraffin, mainly to keep moisture and other stuff floating around in the air away from the surface.

My grandmother and my great aunts used waxed muslin - I got to help with this when I was little.

Edited August 9, 2011 by andiesenji (log)

[TylerK]

Wow...reading that just gave me a flashback to my childhood in my grandmother's kitchen, watching her pour some hot wax into a jar of homemade Saskatoon berry jam. I've seen her make preserves since without the wax, so she must have stopped doing it at some point.

Thanks for the information. It is very much appreciated.