Canned - Peaches

By BlueSchmoo

Ingredients

• Makes 4 pints
• 5 pounds peaches (preferably freestone)
• 1 lemon
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

Preparation

Step 1

1. Prepare a boiling water bath and 4 regular-mouth pint jars. Place the lids in a small saucepan, cover them with water, and simmer over very low heat.

2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. While it heats, cut the peaches into quarters and remove the pits.

3. Fill a large bowl two-thirds full with ice-cold water. Cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice into the water. This is where your peaches will go when they come out of the hot water bath. The cold water stops the cooking and the lemon helps prevent the fruit from browning. Working in batches, add the peach pieces to the boiling water and cook for 60 seconds. Immediately transfer the peaches to the bowl filled with ice-cold water.

4. Before adding the next batch of peaches to the pot, make sure to give the water a chance to come back up to boiling between batches. If the water isn’t hot enough, you will have a hard time removing the skin during peeling.

5. Once all the peach pieces have been blanched and they are cool enough to handle, remove the skins with your fingers and return the fruit to the lemon water.

6. Combine the sugar with 4 cups water in a large saucepan. Place over medium heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to a gentle boil. Once the syrup has begun to boil, slide the peaches into the hot liquid. Let them cook in the syrup until it returns to a boil.

7. Funnel the warm peaches into prepared jars, topping with syrup so that there’s just 1/2 inch space between the top of the liquid and the rim of the jar. Gently tap the jars on your worktop to help loosen any trapped air bubbles. If the liquid level drops drastically, add more syrup to return the headspace to 1/2 inch.

8. Wipe the rims, apply the lids and rings, and process in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes **HIGH ALTITUDE 6000-7000ft: Add 15 Minutes to the processing time in the water bath.

9. When time is up, turn off the heat and remove the lid on the pot. Let the jars sit in the canning pot for an additional five minutes. This helps prevent the syrup from siphoning out of the jars due to a rapid change in heat.

10. When time is up, remove jars from the canner and let them cool on a folded kitchen towel. When the jars are completely cool, remove the rings and test the seals of the jars by grasping the edges of the lid and lifting up an inch or so. If the lids hold, the seals are good.

11.Wash jars to remove any stickiness and store in a cool, dry place for up to one year.