Pickled Georgia Peaches Recipes

PICKLED PEACHES

Steps:

• Toast pickling spice and crushed red pepper in a dry medium saucepan over high heat until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add water, vinegar, sugar, and salt and bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve sugar. Add peaches and simmer just until tender, about 20 minutes. Remove peaches from liquid with a slotted spoon, reserving liquid, and set aside just until fruit is cool enough to touch.
• Pinch the skin from peaches-if the skin pulls off easily-and discard. (If the skins cling, don't fret-the peaches will be beautiful and tasty that way as well.) Transfer peaches to a sealed container, cover with the reserved liquid, and refrigerate for at least 24 hours. The peaches will keep for 1 week tightly sealed in the refrigerator.

PICKLED PEACHES

Steps:

• Score each peach at the blossom end with an X. Make an ice-water bath by filling a large bowl with ice and water.
• Bring a pot of water to a boil over high heat and blanch the peaches for 30 seconds (the skin should begin to peel away at the X). Transfer immediately to the ice-water bath.
• Using a paring knife, peel the skin from the peaches. Halve and pit the fruit and rub with lemon juice to prevent browning.
• In a large, heavy-duty pot, combine the vinegar, sugar, cinnamon sticks, cloves, allspice, and ginger and bring to a boil over high heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves, about 15 minutes. Place the peaches in the hot syrup and decrease the heat to low. Simmer until the peaches are tender when pierced with the point of a knife, but not too soft, about 10 minutes.
• Meanwhile, place a wire rack on a rimmed baking sheet. Sterilize two 1-quart canning jars and lids in boiling water, following the manufacturer's instructions (or see Boiling-Water Canning, page 279). Remove the jars from the water and place upside down to drain on the prepared rack. Remove the lids from the water and dry with a clean towel. Turn the sterilized jars right side up on the rack, using tongs or a kitchen towel to protect your hands. When they are cool enough to handle, dry them with a clean towel. Set aside.
• Fill the hot jars according to the procedure for Raspberry Jam (page 289), and process them in a boiling-water canner for 20 minutes. Store the unopened jars at room temperature for up to 1 year. Once the peaches are opened, store in the refrigerator for up to 1 month.
• For refrigerator preserves, skip the boiling-water canner and refrigerate for up to 1 month.

DELICIOUS PICKLED PEACHES

Steps:

• Combine juice from canned peaches, sugar, vinegar, allspice, and cloves in a saucepan; bring to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in peach halves. Let cool, about 15 minutes.
• Cover saucepan with plastic wrap and refrigerate until flavors combine, 8 hours to overnight.

PICKLED PEACHES

Steps:

• Pour sugar and vinegar into a large saucepan, and stir to dissolve sugar. Add cinnamon sticks and cloves, and bring to a boil. Cover and boil for about 5 minutes. Strain out the cloves and cinnamon sticks, or you can leave them in for a stronger flavor.
• Pack peaches into hot sterile 1 pint jars to within 1 inch of the rim. Fill each jar with syrup to within 1/2 inch from the top. Wipe rims with a clean dry cloth, and seal with new lids and screwbands. Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

PICKLED PEACHES WITH SWEET SPICES

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of water to a boil and drop in peaches. After 30 seconds, transfer to a bowl of ice water, then drain and skin. Place in a bowl and toss with lemon juice.
• Tie 1 tablespoon cloves, the allspice and the cinnamon stick in a cheesecloth or muslin bag. In a pot large enough to accommodate all the peaches, combine vinegar, water, sugar, spice bag and vanilla bean and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Skim off any foam that rises. Add peaches to the pot and continue to simmer 3 to 5 minutes, until a toothpick can easily penetrate down to the pit. Remove from heat.
• Using tongs, carefully remove each peach from pot and transfer to a bowl. When cool enough to handle, cut in half and remove pits. Stud each half with a clove and return to pot. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
• The next day return pot to stove and flip over the peach halves. Squeeze spice bag over the pot to extract fragrant brine, and discard bag. Bring peaches back to a boil and turn off the heat.
• Pack peaches into hot, sterilized jars. Pour in syrup, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace. Cut vanilla bean into halves or thirds and put a piece into each jar. Seal jars, allow to cool and refrigerate for up to 2 months.

PICKLED PEACHES

Steps:

• Peel the peaches: I like to peel them by hand with a vegetable peeler, because it can be difficult to peel unripe peaches using the boiling water method. But if you prefer you can dip them in boiling water, plunge them in ice water, and try to slip the skins off. If the peaches are too large to fit through the mouth of the jar, cut them in half. As you peel the peaches, place them in a pot with a half gallon of water and 4 tablespoons white vinegar to keep them from darkening.
• Using a double layer of cheesecloth, make a fairly large spice bag with the cinnamon sticks, cloves, allspice, peppercorns, chiles, and ginger.
• In a large stainless steel stock pot, combine the vinegar, water, sugar, and the spice bag. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes, until the spices have infused the liquid. Add the peaches and simmer for 5 minutes (you may not be able to fit all the peaches in the liquid at one time - this is ok - just put as many peaches in at a time as you can, you want the peaches to be completely covered by the syrup, simmer for 5 minutes, then use a slotted spoon to remove them to a bowl and move on to the next batch).
• Once you have simmered all the peaches, return them all to the syrup in the large stock pot. Cover the pot and let stand on the counter overnight.
• The next day, bring the peaches and syrup to a boil over medium-high heat.
• Wash your jars - you will need wide mouth quart jars for these pickles. There is no need to sterilize the jars as you will be processing the pickles for more than 10 minutes.
• Remove the peaches with a slotted spoon, and pack in the wide mouth quart-sized jars (if you cut them in half, pack the peaches cavity-side down in the jar). Leave 1" headspace. Ladle the hot syrup into the jars, leaving 1/2" headspace (the peaches should be covered by the syrup). Use a chopstick or other thin, non-metal utensil to run around the sides of the jar to make sure there are no air bubbles left in the jar. Wipe the rims of the jars with damp paper towels to remove any syrup which got on the rims or the threads. Place the lids and the bands on the jars, just tightening the bands fingertip tight.
• Process in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes, then remove and let sit, undisturbed, for at least 12 hours before checking seals. It is important to let them sit undisturbed for 12 hours because the sealing compound on the lids is still cooling and hardening, completing the seal. While the jars cool, you will hear a "plink" type sound from each jar - this is the jars completing the vacuum seal as the final air escapes the jar. After 12 hours have passed, remove the bands and check the lids - press down in the center of the lid. If you cannot push the lid down any further, the jar is sealed. If the lid "gives" a bit, and you can push it down, the jar did not seal. You could put the band back on the jar and reprocess it for another 20 minutes, but this will probably make the peaches too mushy, so I would just put it in the fridge and use it within 3 months.