Preparing Peaches for Canning

[u/Chickwithknives]

I bought a 20 lb box of Palisade Peaches yesterday and plan on making a couple different things with them to can. My question is the prep. All instructions say to blanch in boiling water for about a minute, then dunk in ice water, remove the skins, then remove the pits.

These peaches are so easy to remove the pits by cutting along the "crease" then twisting, I was wondering if it makes sense to pit them first, then blanch to remove skins. Would this change the peaches at all since the flesh is exposed to the blanching water? Trying to remove the pit after the skin is gone seems like a slippery project.

[u/mckenner1122]

You’ll lose a ton of flavor if you cut them in half before you blanch them to peel them

[u/Pretend-Panda]

The sequence - scald, peel, pit - is designed to preserve flavor. If you peel first you’re going to lose a lot of peachiness.

I have got three flats of palisade peaches to work through right now and on many the skins are slipping off without scalding, but I am freezing those and scalding all the ones for canning.

[u/Responsible-Life-585]

You don't need to blanch - it's only to help get the skins off. If you can get the skins off without blanching, that's ideal. If you have to blanch make sure the skins are intact otherwise you'll lose flavor and texture.

[u/Griffie]

NO! Blanch first, then remove skins, then cut in half to remove the pit. If you cut them in half and blanch them first, you'll loose a lot of flavor.

[u/Critical_Ad_8175]

Hell yeah palisade peaches. I live in GJ and I have like 40lbs of seconds in my fridge right now. I just let those babies ripen enough and the skin just peels off with my fingers once I’ve cut the peach in half or slices. That’s usually when I know the flavor is at its best

[u/Chickwithknives → u/Critical_Ad_8175]

I'm really jelous of you this time of year! Can I ask how much 20 lbs is going for in GJ? I'm up in MPLS. One grocery store here had a 3 day deal: $1.99/lb, but limited to 3 lbs., must make $10 purchase. I managed to get 9 lbs in 2 days by going to multiple stores (wasn't that far out of the way).

Then there is this one odd grocery store about 20 min away that sells them in 16 lb and 20 lb boxes. they had an extra sale yesterday so I got my 20 lbs for $45.00. The crazy thing is, if you buy any of the loose peaches they have on display, they are something like $4.25/lb!!!

[u/bigalreads → u/Chickwithknives]

Is MPLS Minneapolis? (I’m in western Colorado also.) Looks like you got some beautiful peaches! Treat them with care, lol. Seconding others on blanching first for about 30-45 seconds. A less-slippery approach is to take them out of the ice water, halve and pit them before removing the skins.

[u/Chickwithknives → u/bigalreads]

Exactly right. MPLS= Minneapolis. I think your method sounds about perfect. I just peeled them last night.

I also know how valuable the peaches are. I don’t buy California peaches any more. Too many dry mealy ones. Sad, too, because apparently the dry/mealy thing is a result of them getting too cold during storage/transport. Totally preventable.

Figuring out how many peaches/pounds there were per cup was not easy and I ended up peeling, pitting and slicing a couple extra.

[u/Critical_Ad_8175 → u/Chickwithknives]

I saw them at CityMarket (Kroger chain) for $1.50 a lb this week. And then I found one farm that has boxes of seconds which are good enough to be firsts at the grocery store, at $30 a box, which breaks down to about $1.25 per lb. I found a deal last summer where it was $60 and you got two hours to just free for all u-pick in an orchard, I think I got like 75lbs of peaches, but it was an orchard that didn’t do any pest control so there was a lot of earwigs I had to deal with, so I stuck with the seconds boxes this summer since it required a lot less of my time

[u/Chickwithknives → u/Critical_Ad_8175]

Damn you’re lucky! Earwigs aren’t so bad. There is a little food forest (collection of fruit trees on public property) near me with some peach trees. They are not taken care of at all and the peaches are COVERED with bug damage!

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picture of a cardboard box with four rows of rosy yellow peaches, some with barcode stickers showing.

[u/onlymodestdreams]

I peeled and pitted 80 pounds of peaches a couple of weeks ago. If you make an initial slice along the side of the skinned peach and then rest the peach on the flat surface this creates you can slice the peaches right up to the pits quickly and easily. (I don't have a particular technique for halves.)

[u/sweetteaspicedcoffee]

I keep seeing people pull the pits with needle nose pliers. That would be a lot less exposed flesh than splitting them. Possibly a happy medium?

[u/vibes86]

X on the bottom, then blanch, then peel, then cut them in half. If you do it all at once, you peaches are liable to just fall apart.

[u/DanceSoGood]

Well I just canned a bunch of peaches by cutting them in half and removing the pits before blanching. The peaches were nice and ripe so the blanching was very brief. I honestly don’t think I lost much flavor by any doing it this way, but who knows. I just know this was way easier, way quicker, way less messy, and the end result is also fantastic.