Hi Maureen. It probably came from Annie; I wrote that to her following a question re peach preserves. She said, by the way, that they turned out very well.

Yes, BWB means Boiling Water Bath.

Actually, that's what I said about this recipe. It's versatile, so later you could stir in a bit of Franjelico or almond extract and use in a dessert application or stir in some Sweet Chilli Sauce, horseradish, soy, or whatever with some finely chopped onion, etc. for a killer poultry baste.

Carol

Yes, indeed, that was my post. I've referred to Carol as my "jam guru", so it was only fair to share her expertise.

Those preserves were lovely, BTW, thanks again Carol.

Annie

Yep, almond is what I always add with peaches. Can you believe my workmate doesn't like almond flavor?!?!?!? (heheh all for me...)

Well, I started these along with Katie's (?) Peach Preserves for a Winter Morning (peaches and habaneros) and her Peach Jalapeno Chutney. The chutnery went first and geeeze...how does do it take to cook down??? I had peaches (and the other bits) boiling in juice forever...thin syrup i.e. I mean more than an hour. I finally got the candy thermomenter out and it had reached over 225degrees so I turned the heat up (yes, scorched the edge) but it really thickened then.

The recipe for the peach preserves with habanero I decided to try and stick to the recipe, and see what would happen when it hit that 221degrees. I got to 225 after the cooking time suggested and so I thougt what the...and bottled it.

Boiled those babies up, and while I have lots of pings, the habanero batch has floating fruit. The syrup was thin no doubt but I remember seeing the jars turned to try to get a better suspension. Time will tell.

How soon can I start flipping them?? to try to get suspension.

Btw, the simple recipe above is macerating in the fridge.

The peach preserves for a winter morning actually came from RuddMD on the Cooking Forum. Mine has always thickened nicely at 219 or 220, though, more than that and the peaches turn to mush.

Have you checked your thermometer? I seem to have bad luck using just the temperature, I always put a plate in the freezer and when I think the jam is ready I turn off the heat and put a dab on the plate and put it back in the freezer for a minute or two. When it's well chilled I can tell how thick it will be. If I want thicker I turn the heat back on, if it's ready it goes into jars.

As for the floating fruit, you can turn the jars whenever you wish but if they are too hot it won't do you any good. I wait 10 or 15 minutes, then turn the jars. If I leave the jam in the pot for 10 minutes and stir gently, sometimes I don't have to turn the jars at all.

Annie

Crystalized ginger is great when added to peaches. I ran some through a blender with the peaches to make a spread.

Thanks Ken and Annie.

This am they seem to be peach chunks in syrup. Not necessarily a bad thing, but adding ginger and pureeing sounds like a very good topping for cheesecake or ice cream. ( Or an ice cream swirl...) Since these are already soo sweet, I think I'd use fresh ginger. I like that bite.

Be sure to add the very necessary ascorbic acid to prevent the browning issue.

Maureen, my peach preserves were very thick, but preserves ARE actually pieces of fruit in syrup, they aren't as thick as jam.

Since I like the "softer" set and the pieces of fruit, I prefer the preserves, although I have on occasion overcooked them and gotten jam. Occasionally I have even gotten taffy. Ahem. That's way overcooked, incidentally. LOL

Annie

The preserves Annie and I made were very thick, more of a jam. We both like it that way, but I think it was just on the border of being cooked too long. We used my thermometer and I'm wondering about it. I too use the plate method which has given me just about as much luck as a thermometer. We kept watching the thermometer but when Annie finally put the jam on a cool plate we realized it was ready to go, forget what the thermometer said. Of course part of it was Annie's awesome pot. I've never had preserves cook up so smooth, fast and no hassle as they did in Annie's sexy annodized aluminum baby. So a lot of variables go into this, ya just have to go with the flow. The more you make these recipes the more you'll get familiar with their personalities. This was the first time I've made preserves with the macerating overnight method and I definately want to do it again, perhaps next year with strawberry.

Could someone please email me(or post) the original recipe for "peach preserves for a winter morning"? I used to have it and somehow lost it....and I love this recipe! Thanks!

Here you go:

Peach Preserves for Cold Mornings (Doris, Ruddmd)

3 pounds ripe peaches, peeled and quartered
l/2 medium-size orange, quartered and seeded
2 Red Savina habaneros, (seeds and all)
4 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
3/4 Cup honey (the lightest, mildest you can find)

Combine peaches, sugar, and honey in a Dutch oven; stir well. Cover and let stand 45 minutes. Place knife blade attachment in food processor bowl; add orange quarters and habanero chiles. Process until finely chopped, stopping once to scrape down sides.

Place orange, habanero chiles, and an equal amount of water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes or until orange rind is tender.

Bring peach mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to medium-high, and cook, uncovered, 15 minutes, stirring often. Add orange mixture. Bring to a boil; cook, uncovered, 20 to 25 minutes or until candy thermometer registers 221, stirring often. Remove from heat; stir in almond extract. Skim off foam with a metal spoon.

Quickly pour hot mixture into hot, sterilized jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace; wipe jar rims. Cover at once with metal lids, and screw on bands. Process jars in boiling-water bath 10 minutes. Yield: 6 half-pints.

Carol

I'm reviving this thread because I think I might try this recipe tomorrow (the Peach Preserves for Cold Mornings) - it sounds delicious! I have two questions -

1. Are Red Savina habaneros the same as any other habaneros? Any reason the ones I grew won't work just fine?

2. When the orange mixture is added to the peach mixture, it is not drained first? The water is added as well?

3. (oops, okay I lied, I have more than two questions) Is this going to end up similar to Habanero Gold in taste or is the peach flavor pretty strong?

Thanks all, I'm excited to try this!

Ann

I didn't use Savinas. I used what I had. So any variety of habanero should work (or other peppers, of course). I think a red pepper shows up better in the mixture, but that's an aesthetic, not a taste, issue. The water is added; it's not a lot, but you do have some pectin in the liquid after the orange is poached. Drain it off if you prefer.

Hmmn. It's been a while since I opened a jar. It's not like Habanero Gold. More peach-y definitely, though you do notice the orange. It's hard to generalize because habs vary so much in heat level depending upon growing conditions. Mine actually turned out pretty mild compared to the H.G. At first you think it's a fairly conventional peach-orange jam and then you get the "surprise", LOL.

I hope that helps.

Carol

Carol, yes, this helps greatly, thank you so much. One more question -- I assume the peaches are peeled? It doesn't actually say, but it seems like the skin would not be pleasant in this jam.

Thanks again,
Ann

Yes, the peaches are peeled. I just posted the recipe as provided by Doris. I think when you create your own recipes it's sometimes hard to remember how someone else will perceive the instructions.

I can't really imagine any peach preserve recipe that leaves the peel on. As you said, unpleasant. But now that I think of it, this preserve might be interesting with unpeeled nectarines (which are just a fuzzless peach). That might add an intriguing element of flavor and the color from the peel could make the preserve slightly rosy.

I've made a nectarine-raspberry with unpeeled nectarines. Very pretty.

Just thinking about variations. It's a disease, LOL.

Carol

I'm sorry, Carol. I am just feeling especially dense with this recipe. Is there any reason that it specifically says to mix and heat in a Dutch oven? The only reason I can come up with is more even heat dispersal? I have one, but consider it a bit of a pain to use....

I don't think I have made a jam/preserve yet that doesn't use pectin .. wish me luck!

Ann, about to peel her peaches

Hey, we all have dense moments. It's not an issue.

OK, I assume Doris said "Dutch oven" wanting a heavy pan with sides high enough to allow for the boil-up expansion of the jam.

I never used a Dutch oven on mine and it was just fine. You want a pan with a heavy bottom and good conductivity so it heats well but the risk of scorching is minimized.

As I said, big enough to allow for expansion when it boils and preferably wide enough to promote quicker evaporation of the water. Remember, the idea with these kinds of preserves is to get the water out ASAP so the jam tastes fresh and not overcooked when it hits the jell point.

The first time I made this kind of jam I was as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a roomfull of rocking chairs. The nice thing is if you get distracted or the phone rings, just pull the pan off the burner and come back to it later, heat it up and continue. With traditional preserves you can do that.

And if you're not sure if it's hit the jell point or not even using the plate test or thermometer, just cool the stuff down and put it in the fridge overnight. Next day you'll see how set it is. At that point you can reheat and go ahead and put in jars and process or cook longer if that's what it needs.

Happy preserving. You'll do fine. And remember, if you end up with it a little thin because you panicked and didn't cook it long enough, syrup is always preferable to tar!

Carol

Oh Carol, I am SO glad you said I can stop! I wouldn't have known I could. I stopped to eat dinner, and now I am putting it in the frig overnight. Not so much to test the jell, but because I'm tired, I need to stop.

This is much more complicated than I realized it would be. I did not really know the difference between jam and preserves. I have been thinking of this in my head as peach/habanero jam. So, I now am aware that preserves have big chunks of fruit. Well, how big? The recipe said to start with peach quarters, so I did. I assumed they would break down as they cooked, and some have, but many are still quarters. Should I try to cut them or leave them be? If you have chunks that big, this isn't really a spread to put on your English muffin, is it. How do you use it?

When I reheat tomorrow, do I just heat until melted (I'm not sure the right term here - unjelled?) or do I have to heat for a certain length of time?

By the way, I don't know if it's my habs or not, but this is much hotter than I expected, with only two habs in it. Of course, it does have the seeds and veins, but still... it's plenty hot. Good thing we like hot, I just hope it doesn't mask the peach taste.

Thanks so much for walking me through this, I didn't realize what I was getting into!

Ann

You're going through the labor pains of learning something new, and it can be harder to do it on your own rather than watching mom and grandma do it all the years you were growing up. Even when kids don't "notice", things get hard-wired into their brains, if it's just figuring out the jars, the lids and the water bath.

It's also exhausting at first. I watch my preserves with the attentiveness of a surgeon.

You know what, if you want jam or that's simpler, tomorrow morning take a potato masher and just mash those peaches up. That's totally fine. Sometimes peaches disintegrate, sometimes they stay more whole. If you want crushed, just smash those peaches into submission!

Make it what you want it to be.

The thing to accept about preserves is it's like patterns in the clouds. Every batch is going to be unique. Different varieties of peaches, different degrees of ripeness, more sun one year, less sun another, so the water content varies. The thing to accept about preserves is there's a mystery to it; we learn to live with a certain degree of unpredictability.

As you gain experience, your capacity to "tweak" and control the outcome will increase, but there still will be times when things don't turn out as you expect. Like life, really.

You need to heat the jam back to the boil before it goes in the jars. If it jelled overnight, then get everything ready (jars, water bath, lids - give yourself time to organize) and then put the jam on to heat just to the boil but no additional cooking beyond that. If it isn't to the jell point, then you need to heat and cook longer, however long it takes to get to the point where it'll set.

I'm a wimp with peppers in this sort of thing; IIRC, I used just 1 hab. I also seed for this preserve. I prefer the smoothness of peaches and the pepper intensity without seeds in my teeth.

Carol

Yes, the labor pains. The problem is that it was an unplanned pregnancy, lol. I simply didn't realize ahead of time how different this would be.

It did jel overnight, a soft jel, but jelled. I have not yet added the almond extract - I thought it would be better to wait until right before canning. I may mash a little, but then again - maybe not! It is fun to do something new, just a little nerve-wracking. Good thing I put the plans for making salsa on hold last night. I had naively thought I could chop that stuff while the preserves were cooking. Ha. Ah well. There's always tonight for salsa. AFTER the preserves gets into its jars. Well, actually I can start chopping while the BWB gets heated up.

One last question (maybe). Based on what you said about the pot, I assumed that the 20-25 minutes of cooking was to be at a fairly hard boil? If the point was to get evaporation then I do need to boil, right? I did so, and that of course is one reason it requires close attention.

I do like this hobby.

Ann

"Real Preserving," (not the crush-fruit-throw-in-some-pectin-stash-in-the-freezer-stuff) is very mindful. May I go so far as to say an art?

In time you learn to read the preserves and you'll get a good sense of the various stages of the process, when you're getting close to the jell point.

You do have some hard-boiling time, though of course it takes a while to get up to heat and during that time the preserves are still cooking. So yes, you do want boiling for evaporation, which is why a good heavy wide pan is so helpful. Otherwise you're cooking too slow and over-cooking or fighting the tendency to scorch because of all the sugar.

The jell point is 8 degrees above boiling (varies by altitude) or another way to think about it is, to reach the jell point a preserve needs to be about 65% sugar concentration (sometimes 68%). That includes the sugar in the fruit and the sugar you add. So if your fruit is riper, you don't need to add as much other sugar. You're boiling the water out to hit that magical 65% point. The sugar concentration at that point is high enough that it attracts the remaining water to itself. That leaves the pectin molecules to bond to each other. They form a "net" or interlocking mesh and then you have, Eureka! a preserve that's set.

Enough science. Enjoy the Zen of it.

Carol

Thanks for that explanation Carol. I've wondered about a bit about the magic that happens. I've noticed when I'm cooking jelly or preserves, that it will get to about 215 on my thermometer (which reads a little low) and then stay there for a while. I'm assuming that the amount of water limits how high the temperature can go. After it stays there evaporating water, then it will start to climb steadily. Once it starts the climb, it isn't too long before it gets to the jell point. I just fascinates me.

Yes, there's that long slow "nothing's happening" and then the sudden shift.

The water issue is huge. As long as there's a certain amount of water the pectin will be attracted to it. Once the majority of water is dissipated and the sugar's bound what's left, then the pectin chains form.

That's one reason why that Ball blueberry syrup recipe never made much sense to me. You're taking 8 cups of blueberries and adding 6 cups of water. Hard to see how you'll easily even get to the syrup point. It seems either you get a diluted blueberry liquid with reduced flavor or you add water just to boil it out. It's just hard to imagine how you'll get optimal results.

Carol

OK, its canned and processed and looks pretty and tastes yummy and I think is about the consistency it should be and now I am finished with peaches and can move on to something else (should it be tomatoes, eggplants, or peppers next, hmmm).

I have to admit, I did not notice the sudden shift. I think that I lucked out in that the time suggested in the recipe apparently worked perfectly for me. Now that I realize there is a difference between preserves and jam, I also realize that I did make preserves once before. I did the Strawberry Preserves Deluxe posted by KatieC. In that case there was not really a time guideline, and the preserves ended up too runny. Now I understand why.

Carol, I much appreciate and enjoy the science of cooking. It is far easier for me to know what I can and can't do and how to judge when something is done if I know the science and the "whys". Thank you very much for the lesson.

Of course, now you have challenged me. I can see more preserves in my future simply to see if I can get the Zen of it .

Thank you again for walking me through this.

Ann

You're very welcome. Glad to see another "convert."

Carol

I have a really quick question about the oranges in the Peach Preserves for Cold Mornings - I'm in the middle of making it right now, and I'm stuck! It does not specify whether or not to peel the orange. It talks later about the orange rind being tender, so I'm thinking maybe leave the peel on???? Oh, and where are the seeds in an orange? - I have no idea how to seed it! (Can you tell I didn't grow up with much fresh fruit in my house??) Thanks for any help!
Becki

I left the peel on. I believe that is where much of the pectin is located, right? As for the seeds, when you cut the orange in half or quarters, you will see the seeds at the center - if there are seeds. Many (most?) varieties we buy at the store now are seedless or have very few. I don't think the one I used had seeds at all.

Ann

Thank you so much for your very quick response, Ann! That is what I figured, but I hate to assume anything when doing this! I didn't want to totally ruin my preserves! Thank you!
Becki

I should have said that if there are seeds they will be at the center but they will be under the membrane that encases each orange section, does that make sense?