Lots of peaches
Lots of sugar
Water
Quart mason jars
Before you begin ... make sure that your peaches are almost completely ripe. Not mushy, not crunchy ... it's best if they are almost totally ripened.
Peel all of your peaches and put them into a bowl of salt water to rest, until you've finished peeling all of your peaches. (You can peel them with a potato peeler, or you can blanch them and then pull the peels off -- I tried blanching, it didn't work so well, so I used the potato peeler)
Before you begin slicing up your peaches, pour about 3 inches of water into each quart mason jar and then put 3/4 cup sugar in each jar. (NOTE: 3/4 cup sugar for each QUART jar, not pint) Stir the sugar and water in each jar until it is dissolved.
Once all of your peaches are peeled and your jars have the water/sugar mixture ready to go, slice the peaches into quarters, removing the pits. Fill up each jar, to the curved neck with peaches, then fill the rest of the way with water. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
Process the quarts in a water bath canner, boiling them for 20 minutes. They will stay fresh and delicious on your pantry shelf for up to one year. YUMMY!!
I do my simple syrup separately, cooking it in a saucepan until the sugar's dissolved, and I put my peaches in the jars first, packing them in, and the ladel enough of the syrup over the top of the peaches til it's 1/2" from the top. Did you use any citric acid to keep the color nice? If I don't put "Fruit Fresh" or crushed vitamin C on the peaches they turn a little brown for me. But yours look lovely :) We've been eating a lot lately of the batches I made last year, since I recently realized that it's almost time for this year's! So yummy.
ReplyDeleteI think that soaking them in salt water is supposed to keep them from turning brown in the jar -- but fruit fresh works too.
ReplyDeleteWe did the 3/4 cup sugar for every quart because that was how my Grandma does it --- she says that she wanted to make sure that every last bit of sugar was in each jar. She's funny like that. :D
We go to Fredericksburg,Tx this time of year and buy all the fresh peaches we can carry!!! I am so excited to find this recipe!!! I will be giving it a try in the next few days!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you!!!
XOXO
Cathy
I CAN'T believe you used a potato peeler! Are you crazy, that takes forever. I did that the first time I made something with fresh peaches, and I thought to myself "Why would anyone ever make something with fresh peaches? This takes forever." Once I learned to blanch I've never looked back. Wow, I can't believe you did that many.
ReplyDelete