CANNED PEACHES GENERALLY GET A BAD RAP. THE ones you buy at the grocery store typically manage to be both flavorless and slightly metallic. And often, home-canned peaches can look a little like a creature that has spent its life underwater. The thing is, however homely, a ripe peach canned in a slightly sweet syrup is just wonderful, particularly in March or April, when stone fruit is still months away. Add a slug of bourbon to each jar and prepare to be transported.
6 pounds/2.7 kg peaches (preferably freestone)
1 lemon
1½ cups/300 g granulated sugar
1 cup bourbon, divided
Prepare a boiling water bath and 4 regular-mouth 1-pint/500 ml jars according to the process on page 10. Place the lids in a small saucepan, cover them with water, and simmer over very low heat.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. While it heats, cut the peaches in half and remove the pits. Fill a large bowl two-thirds full with ice-cold water. Cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice into the water. This is where your peaches will go when they come out of the hot water bath. The cold water stops the cooking and the lemon helps prevent the fruit from browning.
Working in batches, add the peach halves to the boiling water and cook for 60 seconds. Immediately transfer the peaches to the bowl filled with ice-cold water. Before adding the next batch of peaches to the pot, make sure to give the water a chance to come back up to boiling between batches. If the water isn’t hot enough, you will have a hard time removing the skin during peeling.
Once all the peaches have been blanched and they are cool enough to handle, remove the skins with your fingers and return the fruit to the lemon water.
Combine the sugar with 3 cups/720 ml water in a large saucepan. Place over medium heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to a gentle simmer.
While the syrup heats, pack the peeled peach halves, cut-side down into the prepared jars so that they overlap a bit. Use a wooden chopstick or narrow-head silicone spatula to help you layer them into the jars. It’s best to use regular-mouth jars instead of wide-mouth jars in this instance, as the shoulders of the jars will help keep the peaches from floating out of the syrup after processing. Pack the peaches in as tightly as you can manage without damaging them.
When all the peaches are in the jars, ladle the hot syrup over them, leaving 1½ inches/4 cm headspace so that there’s room for the bourbon. Add ¼ cup/60 ml bourbon to each jar. Use a wooden chopstick to remove any air bubbles and, if necessary, add additional syrup to the jars so that each has ½ inch/12 mm of headspace.
Wipe the rims, apply the lids and rings, and process in a boiling water bath for 25 minutes (see page 11).