Life happened (as it does sometimes) and I forgot I posted this! Thanks for the replies. I pitted the cherries and it was quite a bit more difficult than expected. :) Still, I managed to pit and freeze them (it looked like a massacre had happened). I made the world's smallest cherry pie this weekend, but...it was the best tasting cherry pie I'd ever had. Nanking cherries make EXCELLENT pies. Bird netting is going up next year. I'm not sharing with the catbird. The pie was also very well received, so it was completely worth the effort. The white cherries in the picture are white nanking cherries. I have both white and red bushes (but prefer the red). Thanks again, Bellatrix

Well then, that must have been my problem because I did double the recipe!! I didn't realize you couldn't! I know you're not supposed to fool around with amounts in recipes so you keep the acid ratio correct, but where this was just strawberries and sugar and nothing else in the recipe I figured it was ok! I guess not! And I measured out 4 quarts of whole strawberries. The recipe was 2 quarts of strawberries and 6 cups of sugar. It didn't say to cut them or mash them before measuring - in fact (I'm remembering off the top of my head here as I don't have the book with me) it said to crush the strawberries one layer at a time and then to mix with the sugar, so it sounded to me like you measured the whole strawberries, then crushed them and that's what I did. I'm not going to fuss with what I already made - as I said, it won't go to waste as hubby will use it as pancake topping - we've even been known to plop a spoonful of jam in a bowl of oatmeal, so this stuff will work for that as well. But I'm glad I spoke up because for future adventures in jam, I wouldn't have known any of this and would probably have given up on it if I kept failing! And I thought it was weird that the jam recipe that used the pectin used an extra cup of sugar from the one without pectin. I've learned so much from just this thread - thanks so much guys! I want to take my next adventure into the realm of peaches! Peach jam sounds yummy and if I fail again, hubby does like peaches, so he'll have more pancake topping than he knows what to do with lol!! Lisa

Yes, as it is written and with care to use the full processing time called for which is the exact same time for canning chicken and/or canning mixed vegetables. Thickeners are only added AFTER the jar is opened. Use chicken broth? Not with the raw pack chicken called for in the recipe. That would change the density and the pH both plus add some fats since the chicken will be making its own broth in the water while it is being processed. When canning chicken, chicken broth it is only allowed when the chicken and broth are cooked first and then HOT packed. If you tried to do it with raw pack you'd have to increase the processing time to make up for the difference in starting temp. Dave

The Specific Carbohydrate Diet, or SCD for short. It's a very successful diet for Crohn's disease or Ulcerative Colitis. All of my jams and jellies are made with honey because there are approved recipes from Ball using the no/low sugar option. When I do go back and have regular jams, I cannot adjust to the sweetness. I had to have honey for so very long that it now tastes better to me. Most fruit spreads I don't sweeten at all, though, preferring the natural flavor. So back to peach pie fillings.... the apple pie filling I made with honey is 2 years old at this point and we had some this weekend. Delicious with no decline in color, texture or taste. So perhaps I will try with peaches that way. The only question is, where did I get that recipe? I am pretty sure I got it off from pickyourown.com on the internet and posted it here for approval, at which time I got the go ahead. I never use internet recipes without running them by the wizards here. So by extension, I posted the same for the peaches. The alternative would be to just can plain peaches I guess. Is that what you meant by unsweetened pie filling that you ad clear jel to after you open them? Just plain peaches? I've seen a recipe for honey syrup, but could also just use water.