[HotWings]

My mother has some awesome peaches right now (she bought them, but they are absolutely delish!). She wants to can some, but wants to use Splenda. Has anyone done this? If so, is there a particular recipe/method of canning that works best?

Mmmm. PEACHES!

[kaplods]

A few weeks ago I was reading on a canning site that for best results there's a maximum percentage of the sugar in a canning recipe that should be substituted with Splenda. I can't remember where I read it or what the percentage is.

Maybe you could google "canning with Splenda"

[BlueToBlue]

Sugar acts as a preservative in canning and I don't think Splenda would have the same effect, so you probably want to be a little careful subbing Splenda for the sugar.

I have made apricot jam with as little as 1/4 cup sugar and 1 tbsp lemon juice (the lemon juice is also a preservative, necessary here because of the low sugar content) to 24 oz of apricots. But I'm not sure if you can get away with this little sugar if you are keeping the fruit whole. The apricots cooked down to a lot less than 24 oz, whereas fruit that you keep whole doesn't lose any of its water content and you even add water to it to make the syrup, further diluting the sugar. A friend of mine canned apricots whole without using the amount of sugar the recipe called for and they all turned brown in the jars. They were probably still edible but no one wanted to eat them. My jam seems to have held up find in the jars, but I do have to eat it pretty quick after I open the jars or it will get moldy.

[HotWings]

Hi ladies! Thanks so much for your responses. I found out some interesting information and thought I would share a link here. This site seems to explain everything best:

http://www.pickyourown.org/sugarsolution.htm

Apparently, sugar is not used for a preservative:

While sugar helps hold the texture, shape and color of fruit, it is primarily added for flavor and visual appeal. It is not needed to prevent spoilage. You can safely can all fruits in water or in fruit juice by following reliable canning directions for preparing and processing the fruit. Substitute water or fruit juice for the syrup or sugar pack.

BUT... if you can without sugar, you can prevent darkening of the fruit by:

Take special care to follow steps that prevent darkening of light-colored fruit. Several treatments may be used to prevent or ****** darkening. One is to coat the fruit as it is cut with a solution of 1 teaspoon (3 g) crystalline ascorbic acid, Fruit Fresh, or 3,000 mg crushed vitamin C tablets per cup of water. Another is to drop the cut pieces in a solution of water and ascorbic acid, citric acid or lemon juice. Use 1 teaspoon (3,000 mg) ascorbic acid, 1 teaspoon citric acid or 3/4 cup lemon juice to 1 gallon water.

An ascorbic acid (commercially sold as "Fruit Fresh") and watersolution serves as a desirable anti-darkening treatment, adds nutritive value in the form of vitamin C, and does not change the flavor of the fruit as lemon juice may do. Ascorbic acid is available in crystalline or tablet form in drug stores and supermarkets. Ascorbic acid mixtures, such as ascorbic acid combined with sugar or with citric acid and sugar, also are available. For these, follow the manufacturer's directions. In such mixtures, ascorbic acid usually is the important active ingredient. Because of its dilution with other materials, these forms may be more expensive than pure ascorbic acid.

If ascorbic acid products are not used in the pretreatment of cut fruit, they may be added to the canning juices or liquids before processing. This will help keep the fruit from darkening during storage. Use 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon crystalline ascorbic acid or 750 to 1,500 mg crushed vitamin C tablets per quart of fruit. Commercial ascorbic and citric acid mixtures such as "Fruit Fresh" or "ACM" also may be used according to manufacturer's directions.

I am printing out those instructions for my mom. Hopefully, it will work! Thanks again

Whoops.. forgot to add that instructions for using Splenda are also there, along with a lot of helpful charts and instructions!

[tommy]

I recently made cranberry jam and plum jam. I used the pectin that says on the box it is for low sugar recipes. I used all splenda for the cranberry and used a little sugar in the plum one (just to try things out). The all splenda one I portioned into very small containers. Kept one in the fridge and the rest in the freezer. I use them mostly for marinades or dipping sauces. They both had a vibrant taste of the fruit and I will continue to experiment.