Have you always wanted to can your own peaches? It really is not too difficult and you CAN do it. Today I am sharing with you a simple tutorial to teach you How to Can Peaches!
Bottling Peaches
It has been a busy week in the kitchen around here! Canning is a bit of work, but can be quite fun, especially with a friend. In my case, my mom and sisters came over and we spent an afternoon making these lovelies! Bottled peaches are a little more involved than freezer jam and you need a water bath canner. But they really are not that difficult, especially if you have someone there helping you.
Here is the step by step process: (Read through all directions before starting).
**You should be able to fit about 4 to 5 peaches per quart size canning jar, depending on the size of your peaches. Peaches should be ripe, but not over-ripe and bruised.
1. Sterilize your wide-mouth canning jars in the dishwasher before beginning your peaches. Wash off your peaches and set aside.
2. Bring a large pot of water (half full) to a boil. Then set up a large bowl of ice water near your boiling water pot. Immerse a few peaches in your boiling water for 30 seconds. Quickly remove them with a large, slotted serving spoon. Immediately tranfer peaches and immerse into your bowl of ice water to quickly cool them. Leave peaches in the cool water for about 1 minute. Remove peaches and set aside on the counter top.
3. Prepare the syrup for bottling your peaches. You can choose from three different consistencies: light, medium or heavy syrup.
light: 1 and 2/3 cup sugar to 4 cups of water
medium: 2 and 2/3 cup sugar to 4 cups of water
heavy: 4 cups sugar to 4 cups of water
Mix together your water and sugar in a pot on the stove and bring to a boil over medium heat.
4. Peel, halve and pit peaches that have been plunged into the boiling and ice baths. Soak the halved peaches in an ascorbic acid solution. To make the ascorbic acid solution you need to mix 8 cups of water with 3 Tablespoon of Fruit Fresh or Citric Acid. Fruit fresh can be found near the canning supplies in most grocery stores.
5. Let the peaches soak fully immersed for a few minutes in your ascorbic acid solution. The ascorbic acid solution will prevent your peaches from turning brown.
6. Fill each jar by placing the cut sides of the peaches down and towards the middle of the jars. Fill the jar with as many peach halves as possible, but be careful not to squish them.
7. Fill the jar with your prepared syrup. Carefully stick a butter knife into the sides of the jar to remove excess air bubbles. Leave a 1/2 inch headspace at the top of the jar.
8. Place lids and rings on your jars and place filled jars into a boiling water bath. Make sure that the water covers the tops of the jars when the rack is lowered into the pot. Boil and process for 25 minutes for quart size jars or 20 minutes if you are using pint sized jars.
9. After 25 minutes remove jars from boiling bath and set on a towel to cool. Do not move until the jars have sealed. You should hear a light popping sound as the lid seals. If a jar does not seal (you can tell by pushing on the lid), you can reprocess the jar, or just put it in your fridge and eat within a few days.
The best part of canning is seeing all your beautiful hard work lined up on your storage room shelf, and eating summery peaches in the middle of winter isn’t so bad either! Anyone have any great recipes that call for bottled peaches?
**Our peaches were so large this time, we actually cut them into quarters. But cutting them is half is better. The bigger the piece of fruit, the firmer and less mushy it will become!
