Rhubarb Season is Here! Using the Pinch of Baking Soda Trick to Reduce Sugar When Cooking With Tart Fruit

Several years ago, I posted (here) about using baking soda to neutralize acids in fruit when making fruit pies or sauces. Doing so means that I can use less sugar in these fruity dishes and desserts. 

It's now rhubarb season in my area. This week, I made 2 batches of rhubarb sauce and 1 rhubarb pie. All 3 times, I used a bit of rhubarb (about 1/4 teaspoon soda for a quart of rhubarb), then reduced the sugar in those recipes by about 1/3 cup.

1/4 teaspoon baking soda per 1 quart of tart fruit to reduce sugar by 1/3 cup

If you're trying to conserve on sugar in homemade fruity recipes, such as pies, crisps, cobblers, sauces, and syrups, tiny amount of baking soda will spare quite a lot of sugar over the course of a season. 

In addition to using baking soda with rhubarb, I also use it in desserts, sauces, and syrups made with berries, tart apples, and sour cherries.

A Canning Jar Question for You

I had a busy morning the other day. I was organizing my canning supplies for this summer. I have such a range of sizes of jars, from 8-oz to 64-oz. Some of the small jars are very pretty and good for gifting. The largest jars are more utilitarian. As I was looking over each size, I wondered how best to use each size. I typically make salsa, pickles, relish, jams/jellies, and fruit in syrup. I stick to high-acid foods.

Here's my question: what size jars do you like to use for which preserved food and why? For example, do you go through a lot of salsa, so you like large jars of it, while you only use a little jam, so you prefer putting up jam in the smallest jars? Tell me, how do you like to use your canning jars? What has made the most sense for what you can and how much your family uses? Also, which foods do you prefer to freeze, because of texture or safety concerns?