August 26, 2016 Jam and Preserves

Peach Preserves Recipe

Perfect Peach Preserves Without Pectin.

Canning peach preserves is a perfect way to enjoy the taste of fresh summer peaches all year long! This simple peach preserves recipe does not contain pectin, allowing the taste of fresh peaches to take center stage.

Here in Colorado, we are experiencing a bumper year for fresh peaches. Most of our peaches are grown in western Colorado, in an area called The Grand Valley. The Grand Valley’s climate of hot days and cool nights is perfect for producing famously large, sweet, juicy peaches, and this year’s crop is especially delicious. Being that it’s Colorado, the growing season is inevitably short and peaches are only available for a few weeks. So, naturally, I want to try and preserve and freeze as many as I can.

Peach Preserves? Peach Jam? Peach Jelly?

Eeny, meenie, miney, moe….

Jelly is made from fruit juice rather than whole fruit. It has it’s place, but it’s not what I’m looking for when I want to preserve the fruit itself. Jam and preserves are very similar and the terms are sometimes used interchangeably. The big difference between the two is that jam uses crushed fruit, while preserves uses whole chunks. Both jam and preserves are made from fresh fruit and sugar, and sometimes contain pectin, a naturally occurring substance in certain plants and fruits like apples and oranges.

There’s nothing wrong with using pectin in jams or preserves. But, it can interfere with the taste of the fruit slightly and using too much can create a somewhat jell-o like consistency. So, I prefer to just not use it if I don’t have to. Even though peaches contain very little natural pectin, I find it’s not necessary to add additional pectin as long as you allow the peach preserves to cook long enough. A long simmer concentrates the peach juice, intensifying the flavor and creating a thick syrup surrounding all those delicious peach pieces.

A couple of things to keep in mind before making peach preserves…

As the peach juice concentrates and thickens, it will start to splatter a bit. This can be painful and messy if your pan is not deep enough to contain the splatters. So, use the largest saucepan as you have. It’s also important to use a saucepan with a thick, heavy bottom to prevent the peach preserves from burning. I used a large enameled cast iron dutch oven. If you don’t have a heavy, thick bottomed pan, it’s ok – you’ll just need to stir your preserves much more frequently to prevent scorching.

This peach preserves recipe includes instructions for canning the preserves, but you can skip that step and just store the preserves in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks if you plan to use it quickly. If you want to make a large amount of peach preserves, I’d advise making successive batches rather than doubling this recipe. Not only would you need a very large pan to cook a larger batch, the increased amount of juice will mean you have to cook it much longer, causing the peaches to brown and start to loose flavor.

Finally, the total time it takes to make peach preserves depends on how juicy your peaches are. The juicier the peaches, the longer your preserves will need to simmer in order to reach the jell point. Be patient. If you’re using a pan with a thick bottom, you don’t need to stand over your stove stirring all the time. In fact, at first you’ll only need to stir every once in a while. As the mixture begins to thicken, you’ll want to stir more frequently to prevent scorching, but there’s no need to stand there stirring the whole time.

There you go. That’s it. If you’ve never made preserves before, I’d encourage you to just go for it. This recipe is truly simple, requiring little else than chopping peaches, stirring them from time to time, ladling the preserves into jars and boiling them to seal. Easy-Peasy. When you are slathering a piece of toast with fresh peach preserves in the middle of January, you’ll be so glad you did.

{Note} Peach Preserves is a Building Block Recipe. Building Blocks are tried-and-true recipes that I find myself coming back to time and time again, sometimes to make them exactly as is, and sometimes as a starting point for something new. -> More Building Block Recipes.