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My mom makes the most amazing fruit preserves. We enjoy her garden fruit all year long this way. This peach preserves recipe takes a couple days; a longer process than most of the peach preserve recipes I’ve seen online but its worth the wait. It’s not watery like most of the recipes that rush the process.
This isn’t speed dating. You’ll get to know your peaches over a couple days and and be rewarded with some mighty fine preserves. If you are thinking about Christmas already (as I am), you can make preserves now, slap a label on in December and give them away as gifts to neighbors, co-workers, nursing directors (wink, wink) – I guess this means I can’t eat all of them myself.
Ingredients for Peach Preserves:
11 lbs peaches, rinsed
4 cups white sugar
Juice of 1 medium lemon
What you will need:
- 5-6 pint-sized jars with lids. I purchased them at Walmart.
- Large Stock Pot (20Qt+) with Rack (or purchase a canner)
- Jar lifter to safely transfer the jars
How to Make Peach Preserves / Peach Jam:
To blanch the peaches:
1. Fill 2/3 of a large soup pot with water. Bring to a boil. Add peaches for 30 -45 seconds, then remove with slotted spoon or this OXO strainer which I used to transfer them in and out of the boiling water and drain the pot. Remove peaches immediately to a large bowl of cold water. This process is known as blanching the peaches and makes removal of the fuzzy skins really easy.
2. Peel the skin (most of them peeled easily by hand, but there were a stubborn few that required a knife), cut the peaches into quarters and remove pits.
Cooking the Preserves:
1. Place all peeled peaches in a large soup pot and squeeze in juice of 1 lemon. Drizzle well with 2 cups sugar, toss and drizzle again with the remaining 1.5-2 cups so the sugar reaches all the peaches. Here’s where you need to use your judgement.
If your peaches are very sweet, you may only need 3 1/2 cups of sugar total. You can add more sugar to taste while its cooking, so don’t panic at this step. You’ll do great!
2. Let peaches sit at room temp with the sugar for about 30min -1 hour, or until sugar is dissolved.
3. Place the pot over the stove uncovered and bring to a light boil, stirring to prevent scorching. Make sure if you see a light boil to stir because the whole pot may not be boiling, just the center. If it stops boiling after you stir it, continue boiling.
Once the whole pot is at a light boil, simmer for 10 minutes and turn off the heat. Let the pot stand uncovered until it is just warm to the touch or reaches room temp.
4. As soon as it cools, repeat step 3. You will bring it to a light boil a total of 5 times. This is why it takes 2 days to make. It’s really easy though. Definitely not rocket science to bring a pot to a boil and give it a few stirs :D.
You can go to work and come home then return it to a boil; there’s no “set” time that you need to be reboiling it. If 2 days doesn’t work for you, by all means, take 3 days. Preserves have plenty of sugar so they won’t spoil at room temp if you leave it on the counter overnight. If you want the preserves to have an even thicker consistency, you can boil it 6 times if you wish.
(Note: the fifth time you boil, bring it to a boil over a little lower heat and stir a few extra times to prevent scorching. Also, it thickens more as it cools.)
5. The last time you bring it to a boil you will want to transfer it to sterilized jars while it’s boiling hot.
To sterilize the jars:
- To sterilize your clean jars: wash them and let them dry in the oven at 215 for about 20 min or until completely dry. Boil the lids 5 min.
2. Transfer your boiling hot preserves to the jars using a glass measuring cup and a funnel (least messy method) leaving about 1/2″ space.
3. Screw the lids on enough to keep a tight seal in place but don’t over-tighten them since air bubbles need to be able to escape.
4. Place packed cans into the canning pot and cover with 1-2 inches of water. Bring to a boil and process 15 minutes. Remove from the pot with jar lifter and leave at room temperature undisturbed for 12-24 hours. You may hear a pop when the jars fully seal. After 24 hours, check that the seal has formed by pushing down on the center of the lid – it should not move at all. If the seal does not form, refrigerate preserves and enjoy within 3 months.
Tada!! You’ll make it and think “hey that wasn’t so bad.” Well, that’s what I thought the first time I made them.
Current Canning Guidelines:
Recipe updated in 2019 to reflect new canning standards. Previously we used the oven method. You can get up to date on the most recent canning guidelines here. It’s a great resource to answer frequently asked canning questions.
Country Peach Preserves
Ingredients
Peach Preserves Ingredients:
- 11 lbs peaches, rinsed
- 4 cups white sugar
- Juice of 1 medium lemon
What you will need:
- 5-6 pint-sized jars with lids.
Instructions
To blanch the peaches:
- Fill 2/3 of a large soup pot with water. Bring to a boil. Add peaches for 30 -45 seconds, then remove with slotted spoon and drain the pot. Remove peaches immediately to a large bowl of cold water.
- Peel the skin, cut the peaches into quarters and remove pits.
Cooking the Preserves:
- Place all peeled peaches in a large soup pot and squeeze in juice of 1 lemon. Drizzle well with 2 cups sugar, toss and drizzle again with the remaining 1.5-2 cups so the sugar reaches all the peaches. If peaches are very sweet, you may only need 3 1/2 cups of sugar total. Add more sugar to taste while its cooking.
- Let peaches sit at room temp with the sugar for about 30 min -1 hour, or until sugar is dissolved.
- Place the pot over the stove uncovered and bring to a light boil, stirring to prevent scorching. Once the whole pot is at a light boil, simmer for 10 minutes and turn off the heat. Let the pot stand uncovered until it is just warm to the touch or reaches room temp.
- As soon as it cools, repeat step 3. You will bring it to a light boil a total of 5 times. Preserves have plenty of sugar so they won't spoil at room temp if you leave it on the counter overnight. If you want the preserves to have an even thicker consistency, you can boil it 6 times if you wish. (Note: the fifth time you boil, bring it to a boil over a little lower heat and stir a few extra times to prevent scorching. Also, it thickens more as it cools.)
- The last time you bring it to a boil you will want to transfer it to sterilized jars while it's boiling hot.
To sterilize the jars: wash them and let them dry in the oven at 215 for about 20 min or until completely dry. Boil the lids 5 min.
- Transfer your boiling hot preserves to the jars using a glass measuring cup and a funnel (least messy method) leaving about 1/2″ space.
- Screw the lids on enough to keep a tight seal in place but don't over-tighten them since air bubbles need to be able to escape.
- Place packed cans into the canning pot and cover with 1-2 inches of water. Bring to a boil and process 15 minutes. Remove from the pot with jar lifter and leave at room temperature undisturbed for 12-24 hours. You may hear a pop when the jars fully seal. After 24 hours, check that the seal has formed by pushing down on the center of the lid - it should not move at all. If the seal does not form, refrigerate preserves and enjoy within 3 months.
Signs of Spoiled Canned Food:
With any type of canning, we follow this advice: “When in doubt, throw it out”
Discard and do not eat or taste any canned food if you notice any of the following:
- the jar is leaking, bulging, or swollen
- the jar looks damaged, cracked, or abnormal
- the jar spurts foam or liquid upon opening
- the canned food is discolored, moldy, mushy, slimy, or smells bad
Thank you! 🙂
What about the canning process? Do you not have to process them in a water bath canner like other preserves? Thanks
You could if you wanted to, but we’ve always just steamed the jars 🙂
Do you leave them in the pot? Does the peaches react to the metal pot?
Do you mean when it’s all done? I transfer to glass cans once the preserves are ready. I haven’t had any issues with the peaches reacting to the metal in the pot.
I just finished making these, deeeeeeeellllicious. It just so happened that someone in church was selling peaches, so we got 15 lbs for $15. It was a whole adventure for me. Somehow my preserves burned when I boiled them third time, I transferred everything to a different pot while all the burnt peaches remained stuck on the bottom of the original pot. Burnt peaches taste like rotten peaches so that was a close one. The final product tastes amazing, nothing like store bought. I even tied cute ribbons around my jars. I will be definitely making these again next year.
I’d recommend bringing the pot to a boil over lower heat and stirring more frequently if you are having that issue with it scorching the bottom. I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe! 🙂
Какая прелесть! Увидела это фото на FoodGawker and clicked right over.
Awesome! I love food gawker 🙂
So will the preserves have lemony taste?
Not at all :), good question Alena.
So sad my preserves didnt turn out as I wanted to… First of all the color is not light like you have it on picture, maybe because I added lemon right after I added sugar, so it got much darker! second it burned a little so it has that taste…and third…. I made 2 batch of it so that means I ruined lots of peaches….so so disapointed…..I do canning sometimes and this just didnt turn out!!! And its all my fault ofcourse!
Oh man that’s so sad 🙁 That is a huge bummer! 🙁
Don’t feel lonely, Nata(I know a Nata). I tried to do these this year, and the same thing happened to me around the 3rd or fourth reheat. By the fifth, they were dark brown with lots of little blackened bits in them. They didn’t taste too horrible, but I just ate some and trashed the rest. Next year, I will either try a double boiler or I will wait until the last reheat to add the sugar, or both.
I worked on this recipe all weekend. It’s the first time I tried to can anything. It was a success! I hardly made a mess. The only disappointment I have is that it only yielded 5 pints of preserves. Of course it doesn’t help when I taste tested almost a whole jar worth throughout the whole process. 🙂
Ha ha, excessive taste testing will do that 🙂 I’m so glad you loved it. It’s amazing with waffles… And everything else!
Thanks for posting! I love peaches! Will give it a try sometime this week.
We enjoyed a jar of this on our recent vacation with waffles every morning. It was perfect. Hope you love it!!
I am new to this and looking forward to some great Colorado peach preserves! Can you cool it in the refrigerator or just at room temp?
You can but it will warm up your fridge. It’s perfectly safe on the counter with all the sugar preserving it from spoilage. I prefer leaving it on the counter plus it gives it an extra opportunity to evaporate the extra condensation resulting in a thicker consistency in the end.
So true! Fresh is best! I’ve never tried better peach preserves. Homemade is definitely better. I love that it’s not overly sweet. It perfect 🙂
Yum!!! I love peaches:) Defiantly will try this recipe when I find where to pick peaches. Straight from the tree will taste the best:)
This recipe sounds wonderful, and I cannot wait to use it! I just want to clarify your instructions about the lemon juice. Under “Cooking The Preserves”, you mention putting the juice of 1 lemon in at the beginning and at the end of the process. Do you use 2 lemons or just 1? I just want to make sure I’m making the preserves correctly.
Thank you so much for sharing your recipes with everyone!
Oh sorry about that. It’s just juice of 1 lemon and it doesn’t really make a difference when you squeeze it in. I will update the recipe. Thanks!!
This recipe looks awesome! So the preserves will keep at room temp even without boiling? Approx. how long do you think they would be good for?
I left them overnight on the counter at room temp and re-boiled them the next morning so at least that long and leave them uncovered or partially covered to allow condensation to escape. You can safely take 3 days to boil and reboil them 5-6 times. After they are canned, they will last a year or longer in the pantry 🙂
I love that you don’t have to process the filled jars in a water bath at all after–even with taking two days, this seems so much easier! I can handle this! Saving it to try.
Yes I’ve definitely made huge messes with the boiling method. This one is a lot cleaner and less room for error 🙂
Sounds delicious, mine turns out runnier. Can’t wait to try yours out. Do you have a recipe for canning cucumbers??
Hi
When you say 11 lbs of peaches…do you mean before cutting and peeling or after?
thanks!
It’s before peeling and cutting. So it’s 11 lbs at the store 😉
gotta go get some peaches! thank you so much for sharing this. I’ve made everything but peach preserves this year. Your posts always come right on time:)
You’ll love it! We took it along on our vacation to serve with waffles. Mmm 🙂
Natasha, the way we sterilize jars is by washing them and than letting them dry in oven at 215 for about 20 min or until completely dry.
Seems like much easier method, my sister that is a chef gave me this tip.
Oh that is a good tip. It would be especially nice if you are doing a lot of canning! Thank you 🙂
Hi Natasha,
On one of the last instructions you said repeat step 5, did you mean to repeat boiling it and cooling it 5 times? or which step 5 are you referring to?
Thanks! It looks great. Can’t wait to try it.
Thank you for noticing that Sarah 🙂 It should be step 3 not 5… I updated the post.
mmm looks amazing cant wait to try it and use it for my kiivsky cake!! good job Natasha! can you also post your mom’s blackcurrant jam the one you used for rogaliki some time soon? thanks!
Oh that does sound like a great idea to use it on the kiev cake. Thanks for the tip! I probably won’t be able to post blackcurrent jam until next year since it’s out of season 🙁 sorry. Hope you love the peach preserves!