How to can ,ix fruit - Home canning fruit cups (complete directions with photos)







How to Make Homemade Canned Mixed Fruit Cocktail, using any combination of Peaches, Plums, Pears, Plums, Nectarines and Cherries

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You can make your own homemade, home-canned fruit cocktail.  No chemical additives, no preservatives, shelf stable for a couple of years, and using any proportion you like of  grapes, peaches, pears!  Not at all!  Here's how to do it, complete instructions in easy steps and completely illustrated. In the winter when you open a jar, the fruit cocktail will taste MUCH better than anything you've ever had from a store, and by selecting the right fruit, it will use less sugar than store-bought canned fruit cup mixtures and it can be packed in very light, light or medium sugar syrup. They can also be packed in water, apple juice or white grape juice.

Prepared this way, the jars have a shelf life of about 12 to 24 months, and aside from storing in a cool, dark place, require no special attention. If you'd rather freeze your fruit, see my page on how to freeze peaches, plums, nectarines, figs and cherries. Even easier than canning and they will taste just like fresh.. but it does take up space in the freezer. You may want to make make your own home canned peach pie filling to use in the winter, too.

And here are some great and easy peach desert recipes!


Directions for Making Home-Canned Mixed Fruit Cocktail


Yield: About 6 pints

  • 3 lbs peaches and/or nectarines, plums, apricots
  • 3 lbs pears (gives it firmness and crunch to balance the soft fruit above)
  • 1-1/2 lbs slightly underripe (meaning firm, not mushy) seedless green grapes
  • 10-oz jar of maraschino cherries (yes, you can use fresh cherries instead - understanding they will darken in color in storage)
  • 3 cups sugar (Can you use Stevia, Splenda, honey, agave, or fruit juice? Yes. See step 2)
  • 4 cups water



  • Jar grabber (to pick up the hot jars)
  • At least 1 large pot
  • Large spoons and ladles

Recipe and Directions

Step 1 - Selecting the fruit

The most important step!  You need fruit that are ripe, but not overripe; and to make the work easier, cling-free (also called freestone) peaches, nectarines, etc..  This means that the peach separates easily from the pit!  Same with nectarines, and this doesn't apply to cherries or plums. Don't miss the peach picking tips page!


After this step, I'll just refer to "peaches" or "fruit" but it applies to apricots, cherries, grapefruit, grapes, peaches, pears, pineapple, plums, and/or nectarines.



Step 2 - Prepare the sugar (or other sweetener) solution


Sugar Syrup
Syrup Sugar Water Yield
Light 2 cups 6 cups 7 cups
Medium 3 cups 6 cups 6 1/2 cups
Heavy 4 cups 6 cups 7 cups


You could also make a solution of honey or agave syrup.  Basically, use about the same amount as you would for sugar in the table above and add enough water to yield the same final result.


How much solution to make?  That is hard to say.  Everyone packs the fruit in the jars a bit differently and that obviously and directly affects the amount of solution needed.  You can store any unused solution in the fridge or freezer, and boil it again for use in the next batch.

Step 3 - Wash the jars and lids






Step 4 -Wash the fruit!

I'm sure you can figure out how to wash the various fruit in plain cold or lukewarm water





Step 5 - Peeling the peaches, plums, nectarines, apricots


NOTE: this works GREAT on ripe peaches, but if the beaches are rock hard, not so well. Best to let the peaches soften for a day or two first!






The skins will easily slide off now! 


SAVE THE PEELINGS in the fridge - to make peach honey!


Note: one visitor reports she has good success using a potato peeler on unblanched peaches.


Step 6 - As you prepare the fruit, prevent it from darkening!

Fruit fresh or lemon juice to prevent browning

Most fruit will turn brown when exposed to air, even air in a sealed, sterile jar. To keep the fruit from turning brown, when you get a bowlful, sprinkle 1/4 cup lemon juice or Fruit-Fresh (which is just a mix of citric acid and vitamin C, perfectly natural).  You can even just crush 1000 mg of vitamin C tablets and dissolve them in warm water to use.  Then stir the fruit to make sure all the surfaces have been coated.





Step 7 - Cut up the peaches / nectarines / plums and/or apricots

Cut out any brown spots and mushy areas. Cut the fruit in half, or quarters or slices, as you prefer! Remove pits!


Peel (vegetable peeler, the hot water method doesn't work well with pears), halve, and core the pears, then dice into little cubes (1/2 inch).





Step 8 - Prepare the grapes

Stem and wash grapes, and keep in the Fruit fresh or lemon juice or ascorbic acid solution.


Step 9 - Drain the fruit and make sure the syrup is still hot

Now, drain the mixed fruit from the anti-browning solution.









Step 10 - Fill the jars



The fruit should be covered completely with liquid. If you have problems with fruit darkening (turning brown) later, then sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of FruitFresh or ascorbic acid into the top of the jar before you seal it.












Step 11 - Process the jars in the water bath (or pressure canner - see the table)




If you have a pressure canner; either a dial or a weighted-gauge canner, you can use that.  The times for pressure canners are given below, also.




Recommended process time for mixed fruit cocktail in a boiling-water canner. (Ball)

Process Time at Altitudes of
or pints
20 25 30 35

Step 12 - Remove and cool







Other Equipment:

From left to right:

  1. Jar lifting tongs 
            helpful to pick up hot jars
  2. Lid lifter 
            - to remove lids from the pot 
            of hot water 
  3. Lid 
           - disposable - you may only 
           use them once
  4. Ring 
          - holds the lids on the jar until after
          the jars cool - then you don't need them
  5. Canning jar funnel
          - to fill the jars


Frequently asked questions!

  3. Peeling peache, nectarines, plums, apricots, etc: I just finished canning a 1/2 bushel of peaches. Followed your instructions to the T. But had a very difficult time peeling the peaches .Put them in boiling water for a minute, shocked them in ice water, but the skin would not come off. Set them again in boiling water for 2 minutes, same shock treatment, only about 10 out of the approx.110 peaches were as easy to peel as you described. What am I doing wrong. I want to can the second 1/2 bushel with less peeling effort.
  4. Pressure canner pressure: I was reading the directions for pressure canning mixed fruit versus water bath, and you give the time but the amount of pressure was omitted in the directions. Could you include that as well?
    Ah! The USDA assumes a standard pressure of 10 or 11 lbs, as is normal for your canner. If you have various weights or settings, go with 11 lbs!
  5. Shelf life / Modern peach varieties: When living with my grandmother 2 years ago we ate canned peaches which she canned in 1983. They tasted amazing. Was the process different back in the day which created a longer shelf life? Everything I see on the internet states a maximum shelf life of two years. I would like carry the same process if I could. Please advise. Love your site by the way Thank you ! Kelley
    Grandma was right. As long as a lab-tested recipe and process was followed, and the jars remain sealed, technically, they're safe to eat for a lifetime. Usually, the quality declines substantially after 2 years (color, text, taste). Peaches WERE different back then! Most of the peaches sold in stores today were bred to be very hard to hold up better in shipping. I hate them! To me, a peach should be soft and juice, not hard and crunchy! That's why I grow my own, or go to an orchard to pick older varieties!

Comments and Feedback

  • A visitor writes on September 01, 2013: "I am in my 2nd year of canning peaches, thanks to your website! regarding peeled or unpeeled--I have done my 2nd batch of unpeeled peaches. You know why? I get juice running down my elbows and up the other side again.. My kitchen is way too hot to stand over boiling water and have an ice water bath nearby. I also have very little usable counter space for this....My peaches are still looking good in the jars, we're still alive. Your instructions are PERFECT! I'm a bare bones, no nonsense kind of gal, so I just cut the peaches in quarters and fit them tightly into the jar, then add the hot honey syrup. I pressure can also, because it's a LOT easier than that water bath process and a lot neater and dryer. I have lost so many jars of product in water baths, never mind how much I've scalded myself. So I went right to the pressure canner.. I don't know why people make it sound so hard! Thank you so much for your great service. I have referred friends to this site also."
  • A visitor writes on July 22, 2013: "Made this recipe for my first canning experience. I used nectarines. I appreciated your step by step instructions and that you broke it down to the simplest elements. I followed step by step exactly and I'm confident that they will turn out beautifully. I'm listening to the tops popping as I type this. Thank you for giving me the confidence to can and I'm pretty sure I'm hooked. I'm already planning my next canning probably this afternoon after i run to the farmer's market and get some fresh peaches."

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