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Video Summary
In this video, I’m making mock pineapple from zucchini, which is a recipe that’s currently everywhere on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube! In our house we never have canned pineapple because my husband doesn’t like the texture once it’s cooked, so I never make things like sweet and sour or anything that requires canned pineapple. But we both love zucchini, so this could be perfect! I’m using a USDA tested recipe with pineapple juice, sugar, lemon juice, and four quarts of peeled and diced zucchini. I typically only make a small batch when trying a new recipe for the first time, but this only makes eight pints so I went for it. I water bath can these for 20 minutes (since I’m at 5,280 feet elevation in Colorado, I need 20 minutes instead of the standard 15), and they turned out looking fantastic! Some jars are fuller than others just based on how much I had, but I’m excited to see how these taste and if they really do mimic canned pineapple!
Video Transcript
Hey everyone, welcome back. It’s Kari and this is Keep It Simple DIY. Today I’m going to be making the mock pineapple that currently is everywhere around Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube. I’ve seen this everywhere. This seems to be a fantastic recipe.
In our house we don’t ever have canned pineapple because my husband doesn’t like the texture of it once it’s cooked, and so I never make things like sweet and sour or anything that would require canned pineapple. We do both like zucchini though, and so this could be perfect. I’m going to try it. I’ve never tried this recipe before. I did get the recipe off of the USDA site and I can provide a link to that down below. Always make sure whenever you’re canning that you are using a safe and tested recipe from a trusted source.
So what I have here is all the ingredients. There’s not going to be a ton. It’s one whole can of pineapple juice, three cups of sugar, and a cup and a half of lemon juice. I’m going to get the sugar and the pineapple juice and the lemon juice in the pot so it can start boiling while I prep the zucchini. All I need to do with the zucchini is peel it and then dice it, and we’ll be putting four quarts of diced zucchini in, and then it’ll simmer.
I also have my canner going. I have water up just high enough to where it should cover all the jars. We’re going to be water bathing today, but I am going to be using the pressure canner. I just won’t let it build up any pressure. So let me grab this pot. I’ll dump everything in and then I’ll put it back because I think I might spill this otherwise. I’m hoping that this turns out really well. Very high hopes. Typically I only do like a small part of a recipe if I’m making something for the first time, but this only has eight pints, so we should be okay.
All right, I’m going to get this on the heat. I’m going to start with the green zucchinis because I like the yellow ones better, so might as well put the green ones in here. And I am going to peel off the green part. All right, let’s see how many this takes.
Okay, there’s four cups. We need four cups four times, so this is one.
Just giving this a stir. This needs to come up to a boil, and once it comes up to a boil, we’ll let it simmer for 20 minutes.
Our timer just went off. I turned the heat off and I moved this up a little bit just so it’d be easier to reach. I have everything ready. My jars are hot. They’re definitely clean. And we are going to fill these jars with half an inch of headspace.
Okay, I’m going to de-bubble them. This one, I’m quite sure that was too much. All right, I have some vinegar water here and I’m going to wipe the rims because there’s sugar in this. We definitely want to make sure that we don’t have any sugar or anything sticky on the rims because then they might not seal. So two new lids, two rings. It’s hard to do it when it’s hot. I’m not actually tightening it that tight. It’s just hot, so it looks like it is. I might grab, there we go.
All right, my water in my canner is boiling. You want to make sure anytime you’re using something that’s hot in a jar that your jar is hot, your water’s hot, your ingredient going into the jar is hot. Everything needs to be hot. So I’m just going to keep doing this and fill the rest up.
All right, these are all in here. It’s boiling. I’ve started the timer for 20 minutes. I am at 5,280, mile high, so I needed 20 minutes instead of the standard 15. So I will actually just lightly put the lid on there to make sure that we keep the heat in there. And I do have a little bit of juice left and I’m just going to put this juice in the fridge. One of my jars in here is just juice and one is very light pineapple, so I didn’t get full pineapple in each of them. But I figured I had room for eight jars, so I would fill eight jars worth. So I’ll be back in 20 minutes when these are ready.
All right, these processed for 20 minutes, and then I did turn the heat off and let them sit for five minutes. And now it’s time to take them out. These will sit on the counter for 24 hours, and tomorrow I will make sure the lids all sealed, and then I will put them in the pantry or in the fridge if they didn’t seal. And this is my arm workout for the day.
Here is a close-up of these guys. They look fantastic. Some are more full than others just because of how much I had in there, but I think we did good.
Thank you so much for watching this video. If you enjoyed it, please give it a thumbs up. If you haven’t already, please subscribe. It really helps me out and I’d appreciate seeing you here. Thank you so much for watching, and I will see you next time. Bye!

















