Yikes. It’s that time of year. End of summer. Harvest time. Been having a hard time keeping up. Still need to post about my marinated eggplant, tomatoes packed in their own juices and greengage plum jam from Christine Ferber’s book Mes Confitures.
But first things first. Here’s an update on something I made about two weeks ago: canned peaches. Actually, three different kinds – peaches in honey-sugar syrup, brandied peaches and peaches in honey and lavender syrup.
The brandied peaches were inspired by a classic recipe dating back to 1951 printed in the New York Times Magazine a few weeks back. Check it out here.
As for the other two batches, I based them on a recipe I found in Time-Life’s Preserving from The Good Cook series, published in 1981 (Richard Olney, the great American food writer and Alice Waters’ mentor, was chief consultant on the series), where the syrup is made with sugar and honey instead of just sugar.
I’d used the lavender I picked up on a road trip to Blue Hill Farm in New York in a blueberry jam a few weeks ago but found the berries overpowered it. So I thought it might stand up to peaches and add a lovely, subtle perfume to the syrup. You can easily leave it out, if you prefer. I made one batch with and one without.
Peaches in honey-sugar syrup (with lavender, if you like)
5 lbs (2 1/4 kg) peaches
4 cups (1 l) water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup honey
2 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 tsp lavender flowers (if desired), tied in cheese cloth
Blanch the peaches by carefully lowering them into a pot of simmering water. Remove them after 30 seconds with a slotted spoon and plunge them into a bowl of ice water. Once they’ve cooled a little, skin them with a pairing knife, then half or quarter them (I like to quarter as I find these smaller pieces pack more easily into jars and float less). Pour lemon juice over fruit and mix gently to cover the each segment (this step prevents browning).
Prepare the syrup by bringing water, sugar and honey (and lavender, if using) to a boil. Boil for five minutes then reduce to a simmer. Add peaches and cook for two-three minutes, just enough to soften them a little. Remove peaches with a slotted spoon, packing them into hot, clean 500-ml (pint) jars. Quickly bring syrup back to a boil for a few minutes to reduce and thicken it a little, then pour over peaches, leaving a 1/2 inch head space (about 1.5 cm). Remove any air bubbles by running a plastic knife or spatula along the inside edges of the jars. Put on the lids that have been simmering in water to soften rubber seals, screw on rings then process in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes.
In my first batch I didn’t pack the peaches in tightly enough for fear of bruising this ultra-sensitive fruit, so I ended up with a pretty floaty finished product:
On my second attempt, I sliced them in quarters and packed them in more snugly, which made for less bobbing bits up top:
12 Comments
Your first batch looks simply lovely! I can almost tast the lavender.
I tried a batch of peach butter this past weekend that was a bust. It ended up into a Peach Rum Sauce, which then turned into more of a Peach Caramel sauce…sigh. Oh well, it’s all good over ice-cream or cheesecake!
Oh, yeah, the lavender turned out good (good-looking, anyway), haven’t cracked a jar yet, but it smelled so good while cooking, I have a good feeling.
re. fruit butters: I know!! I burnt the crap out of a plum butter this weekend, but still managed to salvage it (poured the good part into another pot) and it still tastes fine. They’re very temperamental, these fruit butters. But I will try again soon. There’s something so lovely and satisfying about the smoothness of fruit butters. YUM.
My peaches look the same as your floaters. Oh well: I figure I’m not giving them away to anyone, so it’s fine.
I love the flavor profile of blueberries + lavender. I’m going to have to try the peach + lavender combo now: thanks!
Yeah, floaters are fine for home consumption. They’re just a little annoying. As for lavender – I went through a bit of a craze and added it to a bunch of stuff to nice effect. It does go well with lots of fruits. Strawberry too, me thinks.
Hi Gen – your blog is fabulous – gorgeous photos and upbeat writing!
I tried some pickled peaches, a Southern recipe using sugar, vinegar, cinnamon sticks and cloves. The peaches are delicious with meat, or yogurt, or by themselves. The recipe had them left whole, and they are in floater heaven! Next time I’ll quarter them and stuff them in tight. I think I read that they shrink in the processing.
My favourite though is pickled beets, made with honey. I’m happy to pass along the recipe if you’d like. Lots of beets still about at the market!
Hey there Liz,
Thanks for your comment, much appreciated. Oh, wow, peaches left whole, like with the pit in and everything? Interesting. Yeah, I just found quarters easier to handle. But I haven’t cracked them yet – I just hope they don’t get too mushy on account of their being too small! I will update. Would totally love to check your pickled beets with honey recipe. I would like to get to some beets soon. I just made some Quebecois ketchup aux fruits I need to post about, it turned out amazing. Do you know the stuff?
Hi Gen,
The peaches look so pretty with a couple of cloves in each and a big stick of cinnamon in the jar. I might try again using pint jars.
This beet recipe comes from Ruth Geddes, Camden East, ON. in the Harrowsmith Cookbook.
2 qts. beets, 1 1/2 c white vinegar, 1 c honey, 1 c water, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp. allspice, 2 c onion rings, 2 tsp each whole cloves, mustard seed & 2 cinnamon sticks placed in a spice bag.
Cook beets and slip off the skins. Combine vinegar, honey, water, salt, all spice & spice bag in a large saucepan and simmer for 5 min.
Add the beets and onion rings and simmer gently for 20 min.
Pack the beets & onions into jars, cover with liquid and seal.
If you have wide mouth jars, they are easier to fill. I used little round beets and left them whole. A few were really large – I cut them in half.
This didn’t quite fill 4 pints for me as it was supposed to – guess I was short a few beets!
Don’t know about Quebeois ketchup. (Bet it’s great on poutine!) I’ll be looking forward to hearing about your adventures!
Hi Liz,
Thanks so much for posting this recipe. I know what you mean about not filling the amount of jars that a recipe calls for. I’m often a few jars short of whatever a recipe calls for. Though I suppose it’s safer to have more jars ready than to have to rush to get more at the last minute. I know I’m always conscious of listing plenty of brine, for instance, in my pickle recipes, as so many recipes don’t call for enough brine and I’ve found myself rushing to make more right before processing the jars… I also like the idea of putting a few cloves and cinnamon sticks in with the peaches. Next time.
As for ketchup aux fruits, never heard of putting it on poutine! Not sure that would jive so well with the gravy and cheese. It is, however, perfect with tourtiere or any kind of roast meats. Anyway, thanks again for la recette de beets. They sound lovely.
Sorry, Gen, I was just joking about the poutine -I’m sure your sauce is much too refined for that!
Good point about having extra brine ready – I’ve also found myself running short. In fact, if you do the beets, you may want to add a bit more brine to that recipe.
One question I’ve had – do you dry the lids before putting them on jars, or just put them straight on from the hot water?
Now those brandied peaches are looking pretty tempting to me!
Hey Liz! Oh boy. I sounded like such a food snob!! Eek. Sorry! I was all, “Ooooh, no, don’t put it on poutine, blah blah,” when really you can slap it on anything you want. But you were kidding anyway. Sigh.
Oh, yeah: extra brine. The best. As for the lids… I just kinda pick them up with magnet thingy and then let the water shake off a little and the water is so hot that it evaporates pretty quick.
Yeah, peaches are long gone so I am staring at my pretties in jars and looking forward to cracking them in winter…
‘Tis the season for Palisade Peaches here in Colorado, and I found your site while looking for a good recipe for grape walnut conserve (which I will try next with the concord grapes from the yard).
LOVE the lavender in with the peaches. I made a little extra of the simple syrup with the honey and lavender and after I filled my jars, I had enough leftover to use with some ice, gin, and club soda. Sipping away while the jars are processing…. Heavenly!
Hey Julie,
(Sorry for delayed reply – I’m just crawling out of my maternity leave as we speak!). Ooooooh, I love the gin and soda and syrup idea – fantastic. isn’t that honey-lavender combo just so lovely?
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[...] will be about my new obsession: boozy fruit. I learned last year, when I did peaches in syrup (honey-lavender syrup to be exact) and brandied peaches, that a bit of booze goes a long way in preserving fruit. The [...]
[...] talked about this one last year, in my Teaches of canned peaches post. That’s when I did peaches in honey-lavender syrup and also the brandied peaches recipe [...]
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