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Ball sweet pumpkin pickles

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Ball sweet pumpkin pickles: Cupboard: exact published Ball formulation and water-bath process.

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Ball sweet pumpkin pickles in its finished form.

The preserve

These are a documented home-canning recipe for sweet, spiced pumpkin cubes. The University of California's San Joaquin Master Food Preservers republished the recipe in 2020, attributing it to page 301 of the 2012 Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. Its warm spice profile sits alongside the sweet-sour pumpkin preserves familiar in northern and central Europe, but this entry follows the specified North American canning formulation.

The UC web page omits the jar size and yield. Those details were checked in the original 2006 Ball/Bernardin book text, where the same recipe specifies approximately six pint (500 ml) jars. This is a source-completed transcription of the process facts, with newly written instructions, rather than a recipe assembled by averaging informal versions.

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Ingredients

For approximately six pint (500 ml) canning jars:

The metric figures above are the original book's volume measurements, including the sugar; they are not kilograms. Follow either that complete metric set or the source's cup set consistently. Use 5% food vinegar, as Ball specifies for preserving. Do not replace it with homemade vinegar of unknown acidity or dilute it.

Have additional jars of the same approved size ready in case the yield differs. Do not pack more densely or reduce the covering liquid to force the batch into exactly six jars. Yield is approximate; the ingredient proportions, piece size, headspace and process are the controls.

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Boiling-water time

Elevation, feet: 0–1,000; Time for pint (500 ml) jars: 20 minutes.

Elevation, feet: 1,001–3,000; Time for pint (500 ml) jars: 25 minutes.

Elevation, feet: 3,001–6,000; Time for pint (500 ml) jars: 30 minutes.

Elevation, feet: 6,001–8,000; Time for pint (500 ml) jars: 35 minutes.

Elevation, feet: 8,001–10,000; Time for pint (500 ml) jars: 40 minutes.

The base recipe gives twenty minutes; the remaining rows add Bernardin's published altitude adjustments. Do not use a larger jar with this schedule.

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Storage and scope

Store correctly sealed jars in a cool, dry, dark place and rotate within one year for best quality. Refrigerate after opening. The shelf-storage recommendation applies to the complete published formulation and process; a different pumpkin-to-vinegar ratio, added onion, larger pieces or an unprocessed hot-filled jar is a different product.

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History

These are a documented home-canning recipe for sweet, spiced pumpkin cubes. The University of California's San Joaquin Master Food Preservers republished the recipe in 2020, attributing it to page 301 of the 2012 Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. Its warm spice profile sits alongside the sweet-sour pumpkin preserves familiar in northern and central Europe, but this entry follows the specified North American canning formulation.

Ingredients

Scaling: source batch only

Pumpkinprepared pie pumpkin or butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 2 cm (0.75-inch) cubes — the book's 24-cup measure
6 L
Granulated sugargranulated white sugar — the book's 6-cup measure
1.5 L
Measure by volume, not by the same number of grams.
White vinegarwhite vinegar labelled 5% acidity — the book's 4-cup measure
1 L
Lemonlemon, using its zest, flesh and juice but discarding seeds, white pith and membranes
1 piece
Cinnamon stickscinnamon sticks, each about 10 cm long, halved
2 stick
Allspicewhole allspice berries
12 piece
Cloveswhole cloves
10 clove

Method

Risks and precautions · High risk
Incorrect storage process

Cool dry dark cupboard while sealed; refrigerate after opening

Hazard source

Cool dry dark cupboard while sealed; refrigerate after opening

Control source

Cool dry dark cupboard while sealed; refrigerate after opening

Do not transfer a canning schedule from a different pumpkin preparation.

  1. Prepare the boiling-water canner, rack, jars and lids. Keep the clean jars hot; follow current lid-manufacturer instructions.
  2. Put the cinnamon, allspice and cloves in a small spice bag. Finely zest the lemon. Remove its pith and membranes, chop the flesh, and retain the released juice.
  3. Combine lemon zest, flesh and juice with the sugar, vinegar and spice bag in a large non-reactive pan. Bring to a boil while stirring, then cover and boil gently for ten minutes.
  4. Add the measured pumpkin cubes, return to a boil and cook for three minutes, until heated through. Remove the spice bag.
  5. Fill hot jars with pumpkin, leaving a generous ½-inch headspace. Add hot syrup to cover the pieces while retaining ½ inch headspace. Release trapped air, adjust the level, wipe rims and fit lids.
  6. Cover the jars with at least 2.5 cm of water; use at least 5 cm for a process longer than 30 minutes. Process for the elevation-adjusted time below, counting only after a full boil resumes. Maintain the boil throughout; if it stops, restore it and restart the full time. After processing, remove the canner lid, wait five minutes and lift the jars out upright.
  7. Cool untouched for 12–24 hours, test the seals, remove bands, clean and label. Follow the canner operating guidance for water depth, maintaining boiling and cooling; for processes exceeding 30 minutes, use at least 5 cm water above the jars.

Places

North America

Documented preparation · Region evidence

Geographical association of this documented version, not an asserted origin.

See North Americaon the mapLocation source 1 →

Related

Made from

  • Spirit / distilled white vinegar

    A clear, sharp vinegar made by acetifying alcohol. Its restrained color and aroma suit pickles, sauces and dressings where darker or more aromatic vinegars would change the result.

Equipment

  • Canning jars

    Threaded, heat-processing jars hold food and a fitted lid during a tested canning process; jar size and process belong to the specific recipe.

  • Food thermometer and refrigerator thermometer

    A food probe measures the temperature inside food at the probe tip; a refrigerator thermometer measures the cold storage environment. They answer different questions and cannot establish acidity or validate a preservation process.

  • Freezer

    A household freezer holds food in a frozen state for storage and selected texture or separation work; its batch-storage role differs from industrial equipment that freezes individual pieces separately.

  • Refrigerator used as a produce store

    An ordinary household refrigerator used to store selected fresh produce in vented crates or drawers, at low temperature and at a humidity chosen by the drawer. Not every crop benefits from cold.

Read more

  • After Halloween: how the world saves its pumpkins

    A full harvest-to-pantry guide to keeping pumpkins whole, drying and freezing them, and making pickles and sweet preserves around the world—with the exact distinction between tested canning and cold storage.

Related in the family

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  • Achcharu

    Achcharu is a family of Sri Lankan vinegar pickles made with mixed vegetables or seasonal fruit and a piquant spice dressing. This version is a quick, refrigerated, non-fermented mixed-vegetable pickle.

  • Escabeche

    Fried or cooked food covered in a vinegar-based preparation, the heat and the externally supplied acid working together; a family of methods whose early form is a Roman instruction for treating fried fish with hot vinegar.

  • Galgal pickle

    Ripe Himalayan galgal is boiled, sun-dried and cooked with mustard oil, spices and jaggery before a further rest in a ceramic jar.

  • Lime pickle (Peter Kuruvita)

    Peter Kuruvita’s published lime pickle stuffs 20 limes with rock salt, then simmers them in vinegar, sugar and chilli before a two-week rest.

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