After spending many memorable summers in the south, I am addicted to the smell and taste of peaches. Aunt Mildred and Uncle Elmer nurtured several different varieties in the peach orchard of their rural Georgia homestead.
我喜欢加入米莉阿姨和表兄弟姐妹们的行列,采摘、剥皮、保存和挂起桃子。虽然大部分的收成都留作了罐头,但叔叔还是确保我们留了果核,用来制作一大批他著名的桃子白兰地。
What will you do with your peaches? There are many methods of preserving the goodness of peaches well past harvest time. If your homestead produces a surplus, it’s fun to let your imagination run wild when it comes to recipes.
在储藏室的架子上,桃子永远不会嫌多,桃子果酱、酸辣酱、腌制桃子、桃子萨尔萨酱、桃子糖浆、桃子派馅或果冻都是送给家人和朋友的好礼物。
Selecting Peaches For Canning
When selecting peach varieties for canning and preserving, freshness is the most important factor affecting flavor. All varieties of peaches, when allowed to ripen on the tree, taste remarkably better than store-bought.
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Unlike some fruits, peaches do not continue to ripen after they are picked. They quickly soften and spoil due to bacterial and enzyme action — which does nothing to enhance the sweetness, fragrance, or flavor of the fruit.
The best quality peaches present a tight, fresh looking skin. Select ripe, firm, organically-grown, tree-ripened peaches free of bruising, spoilage, or insect damage. Peach size does not indicate quality as early-season peaches tend to be smaller, but they are also the sweetest.
Freestone varieties are generally preferred for canning while clingstone variants are considered best for peach pickles, chutneys, or preserves.
Preparing Peaches For Canning
If you are planning on canning peaches, you will need approximately 18 pounds to fill 7 quarts. Seven 1-quart jars is generally the number you can process in a large canning kettle with a jar rack. If you use a rack for pint jars, you will need 12 pounds of peaches to fill 9 pints.
No matter whether you are canning the fruit, or making peach jams or jellies, you have to get rid of the skin and pits.
- Dip peaches in boiling water for 60-90 seconds or until skins loosen.
- Dip in ice water, and slip off the skin.
- Remove pits.
- Cut peaches in half, or slice as desired.
- 为了防止准备过程中颜色变深,将去皮桃子放入一茶匙盐加一夸脱水的温和盐溶液中。作为替代,你可以根据标签上的说明使用预先包装好的抗坏血酸粉。
Aunt Millie’s Perfect Canned Peaches
In midwinter, opening a jar of canned peaches brings back all the sweetness and sunshine of summer.
Supplies And Ingredients
- Heavy-bottom saucepan
- Slotted ladle
- 7 1-quart canning jars, lids, and seals
- Canner
- Canning tongs
- 18 pounds of peaches
- 1 tsp. lemon juice (per quart jar)
- ½ c. sugar (per quart jar)
Directions
- Place halved, peeled, and pitted peaches in a heavy-bottom saucepan.
- Add ½ cup of granulated sugar and a teaspoon of fresh lemon juice per quart of peaches.
- Bring sugar, lemon juice, and peaches to a boil, stirring constantly. The peaches will create their own syrup.
- Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
- 用有槽的长柄勺把桃子装进热的消毒过的罐子里,层层叠放,罐子的坑朝下。
- Cover peaches with syrup to ½ inch from the top of the jar.
- 用干净的布蘸沸水擦拭盖子,调整盖子和手指拧紧带。
- Place in the rack of a canning bath kettle.
- 用水盖上罐子,煮沸,煮20分钟。
- 用罐头钳将罐子从罐头机上取下,倒放在干燥的毛巾架上冷却一夜。
- Check that jars are properly sealed, and date and label for storage.
Best Ever Peach Brandy
除了增加桃子罐头的味道,核是完美的一些最好的桃子白兰地,你会尝到。它所需要的只是桃皮、桃核、糖、水和耐心。
This heavenly elixir is a great way to utilize all the pits and skins leftover from your canning efforts. For each quart jar of brandy, you will need about 15 to 20 peach pits, 2 cups of granulated sugar, and 2 cups of boiling water.
Supplies and Ingredients
- Heavy bottom saucepan
- Quart sized canning jars, lids, and bands
- 15-20 peach pits (per quart jar)
- Peach skins
- 2 c. granulated sugar (per quart jar)
- 2 c. boiling water (per quart jar)
Directions
- 将糖和水放入平底锅中煮沸。
- Fill sterilized, hot jars with peach skins and peach pits.
- Pour sugar and water mixture over skin and pits to within ½ inch of the top of the jar.
- 用干净的湿布擦拭盖子,去除水滴和碎片,确保密封牢固。
- Cover jars with hot, sterilized lids, add bands, and tighten.
- Place jars in the root cellar or a cool dark place and forget them.
- After six months of aging, the nectar is ready.
- 食用前用粗棉布过滤。
More Recipes For Your Peaches
If you’ve found yourself in the lucky position of having a whole lot of peaches on your hands, check out these delicious recipes featuring peaches.
Scotch Bonnet Peach Pepper Jam
当不速之客到来时,桃子辣椒酱配切成片的切达干酪和脆饼干是完美的即兴开胃菜。
Hot And Zesty Pepper And Peach Spread
Served over cream cheese, this spicy peach and pepper spread is addictive. You will wish you made a double batch.
Georgia Peach Pound Cake
Perfect to share with friends over coffee, Georgia peach pound cake also makes a great gift.
Peach Information And History
Native to China and brought to the New World by Spanish traders, peaches — also known as Persian apples (Prunus persica) — are cultivated around the world. There are more than 300 varieties thriving in the United States with more than 2,000 different varieties found globally.
A member of the rose family, peaches, nectarines, plums, and cherries are considered stone fruits because they have a pit or stone.
Although the state of Georgia is known as the peach state and remains justifiably famous for the perfect peaches grown there, California grows the most peaches. Peaches flourish in USDA Plant Hardiness Zones 8 through 10. Peaches are a significant agricultural crop in California, Georgia, Colorado, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Washington, and New Jersey.
Peach Varieties
No matter how the thousands of varieties differ in taste, texture, color, shape, or size, they all fall into three main categories: freestone, semi-freestone, and clingstone.
Free Stone Peaches
Freestone peaches present firm flesh that is easily released from the pit. Freestone peaches have firm flesh, low sugar content, and mild flavor and are perfect for baking. They retain their firmness when cooked and the subtle peach flavor does not overpower the other ingredients in baked goods.
When it comes to choosing the best freestone peaches for canning, many experienced cooks consider June Gold to be the ideal choice. Other popular freestone peach varieties include Red Top, O’Henry, and Elegant Lady.
Semi-Freestone
半freestone桃子是由freestone和粘核桃子杂交而成,含糖量高,多汁,果肉结实不粘核。Zee Lady、Sentinel、Heath Cling和GaLa是广泛种植的半独立型变种。
很多人在想吃新鲜多汁的桃子时,都会选择半自由式桃子。半花式桃子的果肉鲜红,紧挨着果核,可以切成沙拉,或者配上新鲜的香草冰淇淋。
Clingstone
Clingstone peach varieties derive their name from the fact that the ripe fruit flesh clings tenaciously to the pit. Ripening from late May through mid-August, Clingstone varietals boast a creamy yellow flesh that turns a bold red close to the pit.
Clingstones are great for making peach jam as they present a soft, juicy texture, bold taste, and high sugar content. Santa Rosa, Spring Prince, and Red Beauty are three of the juiciest and most flavorful clingstone peach varieties.
Yellow Or White Peaches
当人们想到桃子的颜色时,大多数人会想到一种多汁、甜美的水果,果皮坚硬,从金黄色到橙色,果肉有红色条纹。受欢迎的黄果肉桃子有秋金桃、特罗碧波塔桃、欧亨利桃、红男爵桃和埃尔ligrande桃。
However, if you have never tasted a white peach, you are in for a special treat. Sweeter and juicier than yellow peaches, white peaches are hybrids of Asian peach varieties, and present firm white flesh and mouth-watering flavor. Popular white peach tree cultivars include White Lady, Arctic Supreme, Bella George, Babcock, Belle of Georgia, Polly and White Nectar.
A Note On White Peaches
Do not attempt to process, preserve, or can white-flesh peaches. Most varieties of white-flesh peaches have a high pH, thus are low in acid. There is no safe low-acid method for pressure processing or water-bath canning of white-fleshed peaches. If you have white-fleshed peaches you wish to preserve, throw them in the freezer.
References:
- Peaches, Wisconsin Department of Public Education
- Complete Guide to Home Canning, United States Department of Agriculture
- Selecting, Preparing and Canning Fruit – Peaches Halved or Sliced, National Center for Home Food Preservation
- Ways With Peaches, LSU AgCenter
- Preserving Peaches: Canning, Freezing, Jam or Salsa, Clemson Cooperative Extension
Denise morsesays
R u saying not to can white peaches?