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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 (about 8 lbs after peeling and pitting)
4 cups granulated sugar, or more added to taste
1/2 cup lemon juice (from 3-4 large lemons)
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
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 lemon juice. 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 granulated sugar, or more to taste
- 1/2 cup lemon juice, from 3-4 large lemons
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 lemon juice. 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.
Filed Under
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
Hi! I’m planning to make some apricot preserves. Would a Dutch oven work for this or a soup pot would be better? Thanks!
Hi Inna, I think a dutch oven would work fine 🙂
Does this recipe still work if you double it?
Hi Kimberly, yes but you may need 2 separate pots for more even cooking and be sure to stir often, especially towards the end when they thicken, to keep the preserves from scorching to the bottom.
Ok, great, thanks! I plan to get mine started today, I’ll report back on how I do.
Sorry it took so long to reply. I have been too busy making preserves. I’ve done 3.5 batches, and they are WONDERFUL. My daughter snuck a pint and ate almost the entire jar. I had to ban her from helping herself to the preserves. LOL They are not going to last past October, I am sure. My family is going to hoover them.
Ha ha, I love that you had to ban her from the preserves. That speaks volumes about how much you both liked it. Thanks!! 🙂
Would not have believed that this recipe could have worked. It is fantastic. I have used the method on other fruit. It has worked. Thank you. Will use again and again.
I’m so happy you enjoyed the recipe :). Thanks Wendy!
I love making jam every year for friends and family. I’m in the midst of making the peach preserves for the first time and am wondering if I need to refrigerate the pot of peaches from one day to the next.
My husband couldn’t wait until it was simmered five times and had some with breakfast!
Joan, there is no need to refrigerate them, because sugar will keep them from spoiling :).
Hi , I’m in the middle of making the preserve right now,whilst I wait for it to cool ive been reading thru all the comments,which are very helpful, but no one has asked this so I’m going to, when storing the preserve does it need to go in a cupboard to stop the light changing the colour of the preserve?
It is best in a cool dark place. Great question!
Forgive me asking a silly question but what is the reason for turning the jars upside down.?
It helps to seal them. 🙂
LThankyou. I’m going to try this recipe tomorrow.
Hi,
just made the preserves with only about 4lb of peaches (my mom brought fresh from Eastern WA), so obviously I reduced the amount of sugar. This turned out great, we had some right away (the ones that didn’t fit in my small jars) with fresh baked bread. Yum yum. My husband said he hasn’t tasted something like this since about 20 years ago.
I do have a question though, we have lots of apples from our tree, and wondering if I can use the same method for making apple preserves. It was my first time canning fruit and I totally enjoyed this easy method, my house smelled so sweet for those 2 days.
Oksana, I’m so happy you enjoyed preserves recipe :). To be honest, I have never made apple preserves before so I’m not certain if this sugar to apples ratio would work to preserve the apples. Our local orchards are short of apples this year do to late frost so I probably won’t be experimenting with apple preservers this year. If you decide to make them, let me know how they turn out.
Ok, so I had my aunt help me to make apple spread(jam/jelly?), and we did it in one afternoon, due to the fact that she said since the apples didn’t produce much juice at all and we put them through the food processor, so they were like pea sized before cooking them. And because my aunt was kinda in charge of the cooking and I was the observer, she cooked the apples first until there was no juice left at all and they were beginning to thicken (about 1.5-2 hours, stirring often), it was only then she put in the lemon juice and the sugar. She measured about 1qt of sugar (unfortunately I can’t tell you to how much apples, it was total of 3 qt of jam we got to can). So it’s not exactly following your recipe, but I’m just letting you know what we did with our apples. Next year I hope you can get enough apples to post recipe of that too. I’m totally new at canning, but really enjoyed canning fruit this summer.
Oksana thank you so much for sharing that with me!! I’m hoping next year will bring a better apple crop.
for apples try to make sugar free apple sauce. Easy and delicious! Here’s the recepie I use http://www.galyab.ru/sugar-free-apple-sauce/
I am looking forward to use Natasha’s recepie making peach jam this summer!
I hope you love the peach preserves! I’m really looking forward to my Mom’s fresh peaches in summer 🙂
This recipe is perfect for a novice like me. Easy Peasy. My peaches did come out a little darker but I will not worry about that at all. Thank you
I’m so happy you enjoyed it!! 🙂 It can get dark if you boil the peaches for too long with each boil. I hope that helps for next time 🙂
yummy
Ridiculously simple and delicious! I perhaps cooked too long with the first boil, because the preserves were already a peachy-caramel color at that point. However, I persevered at lower temp with plenty of stirring, and they are superb!! Thank you for this recipe!!
Overheating does cause them to darken, but I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe! 🙂
Does this come out jam-like? And would it be used like jam? I’m really interested in trying this recipe since it doesn’t require pectin!
It gets thicker with every boil that you do. It’s not as thick as jam but it does spread on toast nicely. If you want it thicker, you could always boil it an extra time, just be careful since the more you cook it, the thicker it gets and is more likely to scorch on the bottom.
have you ever tried a mix of peach and mango?
Judy, I haven’t but that sounds fantastic. If you test it out, let me know how you like it :).
The peach / mango combo was great, great flavor and color and consistency. Thanks for sharing
Finished yesterday and let them stand until today. Turned out excellent! Thank you so much!
I’m going to use this same method for some blackberry jam. 🙂
Keifer, thank you for the great review, I’m so happy you enjoyed preserves. I’m so curious to know how you blackberry jam will turn out, that sounds delicious!
Going to make the most of the British Columbia peaches that we get here in Calgary. Just started my first batch! Will update on the finished product, which I’ll “wet” process in a water bath.
Natasha, you don’t need anything special or fancy for the water bath, just a deep enough pot to cover the jars by at least one inch. So if you’ve got a big stockpot, just use that, and a pair of tongs and you’re set! Though a jar grabber thingy is quite handy when fishing the jars out.
I agree and the jar grabber is probably much safer. The regular tongs always make me nervous for canning. I’ll hop over to Amazon and look around 🙂
Natasha, I am excited to try this recipe. But, tell me, should I look for peaches that are under ripe, over ripe, or just right?
Just right or a little overripe (so long as they still taste good). Don’t use under ripe or it will be a little tart.
I am making my first batch of this great recipe. We found ourselves with about 36 lbs of plums this year. My second batch I am putting a little cardamom in it to make it slightly different. Thanks for sharing your recipes and your stories.
Oooh that does sound nice! Thanks for sharing your tip! 🙂
Thanks very much for sharing this recipe. It went great and tastes excellent.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for stopping by and sharing that with me 🙂
What a disaster. I babysat this for three days and it’s a brown runny mess. Not sure what went wrong but as soon as it cools it’s going in the trash.
Oh no! That’s such a bummer :(. It will brown if you overcook with each time you boil it. You have to turn it off and let it cool once it comes to a boil. The same goes for apricot preserves or most fruit preserves; if you boil too long and at too high of heat, it will change color. I hope that helps for next time. Overcooking can also mess up the consistency. I hope that’s helpful next time you’re making preserves.
At what point do you need to skim any foam or does the cooking take care of it? Many thanks.
The cooking takes care of it. No need to skim any foam 🙂
This is the best Peach Preserve recipe EVER ! I love the fact of using a lot of less sugar than any other recipe and no pectin added too. It tastes heavenly .
Thank you Natasha. You are a very talented lady.
Thank you so much Marie. What a sweet compliment! 🙂
I love your Recipes… Thanks For Sharing.