Spiced Peach Jam
A bowl full of peaches – try to resist snacking.
There is just something special about this jam – capturing that rich summer flavor with the hint of spice that melds so nicely with the sweet peach. It is the next best thing to biting into a perfectly ripe summer peach – with the advantage you can enjoy it year round.
I often find peaches come on sale for a crazy low price towards the end of the season. They arrive in store as hard as baseballs but in a day or two they will have all softened up with some even skipped juicy and gone straight to rotting. Toss those ones into the compost pile and get ready to work like crazy to process the remainder.
Homemade Pectin for jam making
As jam is able to be processed in a boiling water bath you aren’t going to need expensive kit to put this bounty away, a rack that can fit in the bottom of a pot deep enough to submerge your resealable jars and a canning jar gripper will suffice – but you won’t regret spending a few extra dollars to pick up a canning funnel at the same time. The latter will cut down on mess and by helping to keep the rim of the jar clean will reduce the incidences of failure to seal.
Mason Jars of Peach Jam
The first step is to remove the skins of the peaches – I like to put the peach in a pot of boiling water, then using a slotted spoon remove it and put it in cold water for a few seconds to cool. Get the timing right and with a slit from a paring knife the skin will be quickly removed, and you can cut the now skinless peach into slices.
Since I usually have a lot of peaches to peel, I tend to peel them into a diluted lemon juice solution before removing them to either start processing right away or if time is limiting for refrigeration to process the next day.
- 8 cups skinned and sliced peaches
- 7 cups sugar
- 4 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- pectin according to package instructions or homemade pectin to rough ratio
- This recipe works well as a ratio. I often make several times this amount in a single pot adjusting the other ingredients based on the total number of cups of peaches I can fit into the pot while still leaving about three inches of space for the jam to foam up
- Add the peach slices to the pot and use a potato masher to break them into more reasonable bits
- In a pot heat the peaches and lemon juice over the stove burner at low heat until they begin to warm up. Then gradually stir in the sugar.
- When all the sugar is dissolved stir in the spices
- Bring the jam to a gentle boil, stirring continuously.
- Stir in the pectin
- Continue heating, all the while stirring until the jam has "set". You can determine this by taking a spoon of hot jam and cooling it. When it reaches the consistency that you desire turn off the heat.
- Place jam in cleaned mason jars and put the lid in place
- Process in boiling water for 20 minutes for half liter or pint jars. IF you are unfamiliar with food preservation guidelines check out the national center for home food preservation for the details.
- Remove jars, and once cool check to ensure the jars have sealed. Refrigerate those which have failed to seal, the others can go on your shelf.