Bottled Fruit Salad

This is what I am hoping to make next bank holiday weekend.  Fruit salad in bulk so that I have plenty of to go through during the winter months.  OH is partial to fruit salad and I quite like it as well.  It was always fascinating for my brother and I when we were younger when mum used to open a tin of fruit salad, dish it up with some Ideal or Carnation evaporated milk - remember them and then we used to fight over the cherry.  However no cherries in this if you did add the colour would only leach into the syrup and turn everything pink.  You could if you wanted add a candied cherry or two when serving but I think this will go down nicely as it is. 

BOTTLED FRUIT SALAD

INGREDIENTS;

METRIC	IMPERIAL
450 ml water	¾ pint of water
350g Sugar	12 oz of sugar
Grated rind and juice of 2 lemons	Grated rind and juice of 2 lemons
500g of apples quartered, cored and sliced (peel if liked)	1lb of apples quartered, cored, and sliced (peel if liked)
500g of pears peeled, quartered cored and sliced	1lb of pears peeled quartered cored and sliced
500g of oranges peel and pith removed cut into slices	1lb of oranges, peeled and pith removed then cut into slices
500g peaches peeled and halved stoned and sliced	1lb of peaches peeled and halved stoned and sliced
225g of green grapes halved and seeded	8oz of green grapes halved and seeded

Cooking time about 1 hour

Other fruits than those above may be substituted but remember that dark fruits will colour the fruit salad.

Other bottling methods may be used for this fruit salad.

Make sure you have bottles sterilised and warmed ready for use you can then just go to these when you need them.

METHOD;

Prepare the syrup first so that the prepared fruit will not go brown.  Place the water, sugar and lemon rind into a saucepan.  Heat the contents gently stirring to dissolve all of the sugar then bring to the boil and boil for 1 minute.

Toss the fruit lightly in some of the lemon juice to prevent browning. Carefully pack the fruit into the prepared warm jars.  Add the reserved lemon juice to the syrup and return to the boil. Pour the boiling syrup over the fruit.  Place the rubber rings and lids on the bottles but without clips or screwbands.  Stand the bottles on a baking sheet lined with newspaper 5cm/2 inches apart. Place in the centre of a preheated oven and secure immediately with clips or screwbands.  stand the bottles on a baking sheet lined  with newspaper 2 inches apart.  place in the centre of a preheated cook oven 105 degrees C/300degrees F, Gas mark 2 and cook for 45 minutes,  Remove the bottles from the oven and secure immediately with clips or screwbands and leave to cool. 

When completely cool test for a seal then wipe clean, label and store.  Makes about 1 ¾ kg / 4lb in weight.

This recipe came from a Marks and Spencer cookbook called Home Preserves by Jackie Burrow.  There is no ISBN number but it is a very useful little preserves book that I have had for many many years.  I use it that much the book has fallen to pieces and I am going to pop it into plastic sleeves to preserve it  - please excuse the pun.