Citric vs ascorbic acid??

[ArmyOfFive4God]

I have some mango in the freezer & want to make the mango sauce from the UGA site. It calls for ascorbic acid. I have citric acid on hand. Can I use the citric in place of? The back of the bottle of citric I have says it can be used in canning (among other things). I bought the citric for cheese making. If so, would I use it measure for measure?

 

http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_02/mango_sauce.html

[Trudy]

I'm not real good with explanations, but I do know that ascorbic acid (like Fruit Fresh) is used to keep fruit from turning dark. Citric acid is what you add when canning tomatoes to make them have more acid so they will be safe to can. Citric acid is very sour so I don't think you want that in your mango sauce. (Citric acid is what makes Sour Patch Kids Candy so sour!) Hope this helps.

[Violet]

No, not the same product at all. The citric acid it to raise acidity the ascorbic acid keeps things from turning dark. You want Fruit Fresh for what you are doing.

[ArmyOfFive4God]

After reading a whole bunch & asking on another group, I had decided to go with the citric acid. I'm not overly concerned with colour, so much as knowing mangoes are low acid. I feel better knowing that I added more acid. The thing with the mango is that it was going to be darker anyway with the addition of cinnamon & nutmeg (which I added more of, as usual, LOL). I also added vanilla beans for the cooking time. The jars still turned out fairly bright, even brighter than the mango peach jam I did. Thank you, ladies!