Sounds like she used the Christine Ferber method. Ferber boils the syrup until it sets - 221, or you can use the frozen plate test. Then Ferber adds the fruit back in, and continues to boil until the set point is reached again (adding the fruit back in adds additional liquid, so your syrup temperature drops a bit).

This method helps retain the fresh taste of the fruit - since it minimizes the time that the actual fruit is cooking.

pixie lou is correct. Ferber says about 5 minutes in her book. It took more like 10 minutes for my syrup to reach 221-ish. But, I make mine more like jam (small to medium size chunks rather than large pieces) and prefer it a little firmer. (I bought her vineyard peach preserves once. It was larger pieces in syrup - a traditional preserve.) I also squished a little of the fruit with a potato masher once I put the fruit back in. Her instructions say to cook another 5 minutes after putting the fruit back in or until set. I did mine about 7 minutes. I like the consistency that I got. It doesn't run off the bread. But of course, each batch will be different based on the fruit used. I don't really taste the lemon, vanilla or almond extract but they all bring something to the party in terms of layers of flavors.

Thank you for your exact directions/instructions, Melly. I wanted to know what YOU did that worked. I often use my old (25cent Goodwill) potato masher, too. Sounds great.

Kathy in Washington

Let me know if it works out for you. My parents have already finished a few jars of peach preserves in one week. (I took them the partial jars of each batch plus a whole one.)

I don't have the Christine Ferber book, though it is on my wishlist, so I'm wondering about the vanilla bean. Do you just add it when you boil the syrup down, and then strain it out before canning?

Thanks,
Bonnie

I put the vanilla bean in with the fruit when it was soaking with the sugar overnight (it was dry and needed to plump). The next day I cut it half, scraped the seeds into the strained syrup and dropped the beans as well. I made a note to self to bring the syrup to a boil and skim once first before putting the seeds and bean in since the seeds tended to get caught up in the foam. (I ended up not skimming much but it turned out fine.) I removed the bean right before putting the preserves in the jars. When I made vanilla kumquat marmalade, I put a piece of bean vanilla bean in each jar. I didn't do that this time. Mostly because I was feeling lazy. I can't remember whether Ferber had a peach with vanilla bean or not. I had out every canning book I own looking at the permutations of peach preserves. At least one of them used vanilla. She does in some other flavors for sure. Oh and I really like the addition of the almond extract. I find that really brings out the peachiness.

Thanks, Melly!

I tried a Peach Amaretto Butter my first year of canning (this is year 3), and decided I didn't care for the Amaretto flavor in it, but maybe almond extract wouldn't be as strong?

I also tried a Ginger Peach Jam last year, and decided I didn't care for the little pieces of candied ginger in it.

So far, my favorite peach recipe has been Spiced Peach Jam, but I think I'll give this one a try when peaches come into season here.

Bonnie

I'm not a huge fan of Amaretto but really loved it in an Apricot Conserve. I've found for my own taste I just need to severely reduce the amount of liqueur many recipes call for. Also remember the flavor will mellow significantly with aging.

Ginger is wonderful with peaches but you may prefer to use fresh ginger in a bag and remove it when the ginger flavor is just to your taste.

There always are ways around these things if you want the flavor element but find the original recipe is too much or you don't care for the texture of something like candied ginger.

Extracts can work very well. Bitter almond can be wonderful. Since extracts and oils last a long long time, I go for natural flavors and the highest quality I can find. I know some people like Lorann and I do have a number of their essential oils but many of their extracts are artificial flavors and I don't care for those. My favorite company is the one at the link. These flavors are very strong. A little goes a long way.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: Bickford Flavors

I don't pick out the almond flavor on its own in the preserves, but then again I like amaretto. You might go with only a half teaspoon of extract or leave it out altogether.

I just bought a box of peaches at the farmstand yesterday and plan to make this recipe--it sounds delicious. When do I add the lemon juice and almond extract? Before or after the overnight soak? Thanks!

I add the lemon juice at the beginning to keep the peaches from browning and add the extract at the end a minute or so before pulling it off the heat.

Thank you Melly!

How much is the juice of 1.5 lemons? I only have bottled lemon juice (I know, it doesn't taste the same but I always have bottles on hand)?

Supposedly 1 medium lemon is approx 3 Tablespoons of juice.

So then did you BWB the jars or did you pressure can them? (I'm kinda foggy in the brain department these days so if I missed that part somewhere above, sorry!)

Thanks,
Edie

I was planning on using 1/2 pint jars and BWB for 10 minutes, which is what other peach recipes call for--I didn't see that part in the post either.

In general any kind of fruit preserve (with the exception of something like fig?) is 5 min BWB if jars are sterilized, 10 (at sea level) if not sterilized beforehand.

Thanks Ajsmama--good to know.

I was going to buy some vanilla beans and when I saw the price of them I put the jar back ($13.00 for 2 beans!!!!) So if I use Vanilla Extract instead of the bean, how much do you think I should add, and should I add it when I add the almond, or should I wait until after I remove the preserves from the heat and stir it in just before putting the mixture into the jars?

Thanks so much for your patience with my silly questions!
Edie

I think you could go either way; you might get a little more pronounced vanilla flavor or aroma if you add it after cooking but if you just use a teaspoon of extract it's still going to be pretty subtle. I'm using vanilla beans I got free with my last order from MySpiceSage.com--you may want to check them out as I've found them to be a good source. FWIW, they're selling 8 Madagascar vanilla beans for $8.50 with free shipping....

WOW - That's a great deal. Thanks - I will check them out! And thanks for the extract advice. I'm so looking forward to making this!

Edie

This jam is really good; I just got more peaches to make another batch. And a clarification on the free shipping--if you spend $10 it's free which is still great. They ship very quickly; the stuff I get comes from NY within a few days.

I just made this same basic recipe, substituting pears for peaches. I used more lemons and suspended the lemon seeds for added pectin. I used about 6 fresh lemons, plus pulp. Still a bit runny but the taste is to die for. Hubby says it's the best preserves ever!
I did use 4 vanilla beans, only because I bought two pounds of vanilla beans from Amazon for $24.00. I love vanilla so I figured I may as well use it.

Just bought 6 lbs of peaches from orchard (saw the sign finally they have something! as we were driving past the road). Gotta go through them tomorrow to see - varying degrees of ripeness but have to be better than the 4 (peaches, not lbs) I bought Friday at grocery store. Whatever DH and DD don't eat will get made into preserves - DH liked the nectarine Frangelico so much he asked me to make more, but this will do!

Gotta check out the beans - otherwise it's extract. We're not far from NY - if Irene doesn't disrupt the mail.

Oh, BTW, do you peel the peaches by boiling them first? How large do you cut them before putting them in the MW with the sugar? We like them chunky, and they will break down in cooking (I'll use the masher on some too). Thanks

I've made 2 batches this week (they are so good!) and dropped the peaches in boiling water for less than a minute and then peeled them. Some the peel came off as I made the initial cut with my knife and some were less obliging (I believe it has to do with ripeness--less ripe = harder to peel). I roughly chopped them up into maybe 1/2 inch pieces, didn't really fuss with them much. I skipped the microwave part and just stirred them a bit before refrigerating them; the sugar dissolved on its own. During the cooking process I did mash them a bit with my potato masher as Melly suggested. Getting to set point takes me a lot longer than 5 minutes.

Thanks - maybe I'll skip the MW part too so they don't get overcooked.

I made Nectarine Frangelico Jam modified from the Rummy Peach Jam recipe from Helen Witty, she leaves the fruit in the pan and says to cover and gently boil for 20 minutes til fruit is translucent. I like the Ferber method that keeps the fruit chunkier - but don't you still have to cook it til translucent so you don't have a large raw chunk? Maybe I shouldn't skip the MW part. Is 7 (or 10) minutes really long enough to cook the fruit? Just asking b/c that's half the time Helen says, though her recipe is definitely a jam and not a preserve. She also adds half the sugar *after* that point, then cooks to set.

Thanks

Mine turns out like jam. The peach pieces soften up quite a bit overnight and during the cooking turn a glossy amber color. Before they even go into the pot they no longer seem raw.

Nectarine Frangelico sounds scrumptious. Did you adapt from the Helen Witty recipe that uses brown sugar?

Yes, I did Melly - half light brown sugar added to the peaches, the other half of the sugar is cane sugar added to the pan. Used the last of the bottle of Frangelico, just barely 6 oz, in place of the rum. Like you said about the peaches, the nectarines were sorry but the jam is fantastic. I figured the Frangelico being hazelnut would do the same thing for nectarines that almond does for peaches.

I made your Peach Vanilla Almond (no beans) Jam today, with clear vanilla extract (1 tsp) and almond extract (1/2 tsp) added at the end. I got 6 8-oz jars, plus a half dozen chunks and some syrup left in the pan. I had boiled the pits (some not quite ripe so chunks left on the pits) and peels, planning to make the Peach Honey or syrup, but had 4C of juice so decided to put that in the pan with a small slice of ginger and a quart of frozen (thawed) blackberries from last year, pulled some berries out after heating to dissolve the sugar, used the same "French plunge" method adding the reserved berries after the syrup was almost gelled. I'm not sure I have a good set, and most of the fruit ended up in the first 4 jars (I got 5), and it's floating, but I'm calling it "Preserves" if it doesn't set hard. I got another 2 jars of "jelly" (or syrup?) I processed and then another almost 12 oz (10 oz?) I put in the fridge and boy it tastes yummy. Not bad for 4 lbs of peaches and a quart of berries (and 10C of sugar, and all day)! The jelly is such a beautiful color (except for a stray seed here and there) that I think next time I'm just going to add blackberry juice instead of whole berries and see whether that has enough pectin to make the peach juice set. I really prefer the taste of no-pectin preserves.

Next time I have peaches, I'm thinking of trying the Helen Witty Peach-Rum Jam. Just had to have something the kids could eat this time since DD was the one who insisted I buy 6 lbs of peaches at the orchard this week ;-) Thanks for the recipe!

I don't know why I bothered to process all the jars - opened one right away and WOW! But after we each had a PBJ I told DH this was too good for PB sandwich, the delicate taste gets lost so it got stuck in back of fridge and we will save it for toast, pancakes (maybe with some of that blackberry peach syrup, or homemade maple syrup), etc.

Grocery store has peaches for 49 cents/lb this week (with $15 purchase) instead of the "sale" price of 99 cents they had last week so I'll go buy 3 more lbs and make that rummy version with spiced rum (I think DH has left me 6 oz).