How To Can Peaches: Part I

Peaches and graham crackers.

That combination is something I'll always equate to growing up with my dad. Each night, he would pad across the lime-green linoleum on his way to the fridge (which was also green, mind you). He would grab a quart of home-canned peaches and a box of graham crackers and sit quietly at the kitchen table, munching away.

In 2012, I tried my hand at preserving peaches by myself. You can read all about that special experience HERE.

Now that's it's 2018 and I have a few more years under my belt, I thought I'd give you a quick run down of how I preserve my peaches.

{This post is PART I and will be dedicated to canning peaches in mason jars. Stay tuned for PART II : a crash-course on peach freezer jam!}



What You'll Need:

steam canner 
glass mason jars/lids (I use quarts)
miscellaneous sized mixing bowls
4 qt pot
8 qt pot
paring knife
jar lifter (something like this)
jar funnel
large slotted spoon
ladle
plastic utensil


For starters, you're going to want to lay everything out and make sure you have what you need. Here's what I do:

1) I get out my steam canner and put it on one of the large front burners of my stove-top. I fill it up with water until just below the rack and put a penny or marble in the bottom (just trust me, eh?). Put on medium heat.

2) I put my 4-quart pot on the back burner and fill it up with 10 cups of water. Mixing in 5 cups sugar will produce a moderate sugar syrup for the canned peaches. . . you can adjust the sugar/water ratio to whatever you'd like! Turn to a medium heat.

3) My 8-quart pot goes on the other front burner. I fill it 3/4 of the way up with water, but it doesn't need to be exact. Cover and turn on high. The object is to bring to a boil as quickly as possible.

4) Next, I fill a large mixing bowl with cold water (extra points if it has ice in it, but I'm far too lazy for that) and put it on the counter right by my 8-quart pot.

5) My giant box of peaches sits on the counter next to my bowl of cold water, along with my slotted spoon.

6) A little further down on my counter top, I place an empty medium-sized bowl (for the peach skin/pits). I make sure my sharp paring knife is there, too.

7) I line up 4-8+ clean glass quart jars in front of my "pit bowl" (with their lids and rings off, but nearby).

NOTE: die-hard canners will tell you that ye must boil your lids. I am sure they're quite right, but, again, I'm a lazy canner-person. I don't. I make sure they're clean and unblemished, but that's about it. If you DO boil your lids, you're going to need a small saucepan of boiling water, and a magnetic lid lifter to get them out of the boiling water when it's time to put them on your mason jars.

8) At this point, I stir my warming sugar water and check to make sure my steam canner water is just kinda simmering. I don't want to waste a ton of water by bringing it to a full boil too early, but I also don't want to wait forever for it to boil once my peaches are ready. Does that make sense? It will. :)

9) Once the 8-quart water is boiling, I take my slotted spoon and put a peach on it. I carefully lower it into the water, along with approx. 4 others (depending on size). Why don't I just plop it in the water, you ask? Peaches don't like to plop. They will bruise. So, keep the plopping to a minimum.

This process is called blanching, you guys. It will save you at least 479 years when canning peaches because you don't have to peel the skin off slice by slice :) After, oh, 20-30 seconds (I guesstimate), I remove the peaches using the slotted spoon and place them in my cold water.

10) Those puppies don't take long to cool down, so I wait about 10 seconds and then grab my first peach. I turn it to its "bum side" (this is all very technical, see) and place my paring knife right in the crack. If the peach is initially ripe enough and I blanched it long enough, all I have to do is nick the skin with my knife and the skin just peels right off the entire peach. It is AAAA-MAZING. Blanching changed my life, y'all. I swear I would waste 30% of the peach just trying to get the skin off with my knife if I peeled it the "old-fashioned way".

11) After removing the skin, I cut the peach in half and remove the pit. Then I lay it flat-side down in my palm and cut it into 3-4 slices (depending on the size of the peach). Once cut to my personal preference, I start filling up a mason jar. You can totally just cut it in half, remove the pit, and put it in the jar. Do whatever you like!

12) I repeat the blanching and slicing process until 4 of the jars are filled. I leave about 1" of room at the top of the jar.

13) By now, the sugar in my water has dissolved into a delicious watery-syrup and I can ladle it into my peach-filled jars (using the funnel to help reduce my mess). Try to cover the peaches with the syrup, but also try to leave approximately 1/2" of headroom. If you overfill the jar, the syrup will come boiling out while in your steam canner. Not the end of the world, but it makes a sticky mess!

14) While I'm filling up my jars with syrup, I crank up my steam canner to high so that I get that water boiling the rest of the way.

15) Once all jars are filled, I take a plastic knife/spoon and slide it down the very outside of the jar (between the glass and the peaches). I apply a small amount of pressure toward the center of the jar, thus releasing any trapped air bubbles. Repeat on the other 3 "sides" of each jar.

16) I then use a clean, damp cloth (or paper towel) to carefully clean the tops of my jars. If there is even the TINNIEST bit of peach or anything on the top lip of the mason jar, it will not seal properly. Make sure those puppies are clean!

17) I place the lid on and grab a ring. Now, a word of caution. If the ring is screwed on too tight, your jar can explode. Pretty sure. All I know is that we don't want it screwed on too tight. Big no-no. Screw on the ring until it just barely starts to tighten. It's called "finger tight", I believe. Please don't go all Hulk on your peaches and tighten with all your might, mind, and strength.

18) My steam canner fits 4 quarts of peaches at a time, so I transfer them over to the rack of my steam canner (making sure there's enough room between the jars so they don't clack together) and put the giant lid on. Consult your manual, but in my case, once I see a steady stream of steam spraying about 5" from my tiny "steam hole", I start the timer.

19) For cold-pack peaches (which is the process I just explained), my steam canner recommends I steam them for 30 minutes. So, you know. That's what I do.

20) While the first batch steams, I repeat steps 12-16 until my other 4+ jars are filled and ready for the canner.

21) Just before the timer goes off, I place some towels on my counter in a place where little hands can't reach them. I usually do 2-3 towels thick because those mason jars are wicked hot and I don't want to melt my cheap counter tops. :)

22) Once the timer goes off, I use hot pads to CAREFULLY lift the lid off of my canner a little bit and allow the steam to escape away from my face. Please-for-all-that-is-holy-and-good, don't burn yourself with the steam. I place the hot lid in/on my sink and grab my jar lifter.

23) I grab a jar using the jar lifter (such an apt name), and place a towel or hot pad under it so it doesn't drip all over my floor on the way to my towel-clad counter top. Once all jars are safely on the makeshift cooling rack, I replenish my canner with more water and repeat step 18.

NOTE: remember when you thought I was crazy because I had you put a penny/marble in your canner? That's because once you put the lid on and you're "steaming", you can't lift it up to make sure you haven't boiled out all your water. You lift the lid to check your water level while canning peaches? You just released the needed steam and you have to start over. You run out of water during the process? You have to start over. The penny/marble will rattle while your water is boiling, so you can tell if you still have water during the process without having to check. Ta-da! You're welcome, friends.

. . . . .

YOU DID IT! Do a happy dance.

You're basically a pioneer.

And I know for a fact that you're a saint if you read that entire thing and you're still here. Congratulations!

Now go eat your peaches.

{Stay tuned for Part II -- Freezer Jam}