Peach Preserves (photos)

Freestone peaches are here. There is an orchard just east of Brandon that has been selling them for a couple of weeks now. We bought a half peck (7-8 pounds) last weekend and yesterday we made five pints of preserves.

Here is what we did:

The peaches were nice and ripe, very sweet and full of flavor. These are about tennis ball sized fruit. I realized, after peeling maybe 30 peaches that I forgot to take of them before starting the project, but they all looked like this.



We use a boiling water bath to loosen the skins so that no fruit is wasted when the peels are removed. Into the bath for between one and two minutes.



And the peelings pull away easily, with no wasted fruit flesh.



Here are a bunch, passed through boiling water and patiently waiting to be peeled.



I have mentioned before that freestone fruit may be easily pulled apart (separated from the stone)



Skins go into discard.



Peach flesh goes into a bowl.



And the stone is left.



Next, the fruit is cut into manageable pieces - This size or smaller.



And the cooking begins.



To make the preserves, some quantity of sugar is needed (Based on how sweet the fruit is and how sweet you like your preserves). Our fruit was very sweet, and so we only added about 1 cup of sugar. You will also need a little water, in this case 3/4 cup, and one package of Sure Jell for 6 pounds of fruit. Most of that water will be cooked away, but it helps get the cooking started.



The fruit is brought to a slow boil.



and cooked, with frequent stirring, for about an hour.



Care needs to be taken to avoid scorching - any sticking to the bottom of the pan. I think the possibility of that happening varies from fruit to fruit, and the sugar level. These cooperated just fine. You will notice, there is much too much water in the pot at this point - actually, most of rendered from the fruit. It will need to be reduced quite a bit for the fruit to Jell.



As the fruit cooks, it softens and the liquid reduces. At some point, the color of the fruit begins to change (darker). About this time, we used a potato masher to break the pulp apart to the texture we wanted for our preserves. We also added the sugar, and after tasting to make certain the level of sweetness was what we wanted, we added the Sure Jell (in a slurry of water). The fruit needs to cook at least 10-20 minutes after adding the Sure Jell. Stirring is important here. As I stir, I daydream of homemade biscuits with peach preserves. that seems to make the time pass just fine.



As the last cooking and reduction of liquid progresses I set up the wide mouth jars we used. My hope was 6 pints. The result was 5 Pints.



My experience in cooking preserves comes from my mom, when I was just a kid. Her way was to skim away the foam and then try to mediate the fight between my brother and I as to who would get the sweet foam as a Jelly making treat. Yesterday, I managed to get all of it.



My mom's way of making Jelly or Jam, or Preserves was to occasionally pull a sample, out it in the freezer for a quick chill and them have a child check it for consistency. Yesterday, that was my job.



When the preserves showed proper jelling, They were dispensed into pint jars. The ones we used were wide mouth pints.



After all of the preserves were jarred, and lids and rings in place, they were placed into a boiling water bath for 10-15 minutes to help the lids seal.



Nice sound when the lids pop and you know the jars have sealed.



I think Red Plum jelly is next on our agenda. We usually don't eat this much jelly, but the stuff makes excellent gifts, and it is about as easy to make 5 pints as it is to make 1 or 2.

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