tricia,

The added flavouring is fine! If you followed the BBB-recommended directions for the peaches otherwise (hot jars, proper processing time, etc.), then your peaches should be 100% safe.

You can even leave a little piece of vanilla bean or cinnamon stick in the jar if you want---it looks kind of cute for gifting. The flavour will get stronger over time, though when I did this it didn't turn out too strong after six months or so (I never have had canned peaches last more than that---we eat them up!)

A hint of allspice is nice with peaches, too. You can buy whole allspice "berries" (little dried round balls) that you can add to the syrup and then strain out like you did with the cinnamon stick. (Or you can make a "spice bag," tying up the spices in a square of cheesecloth or muslin fabric, so the flavour simmers out of them but you can fish them out easily in one grab.

Another nice thing is pears with a little ginger (with or without vanilla).

Oh, and you might enjoy experimenting with applesauce. You can add cinnamon to that, of course --- very yummy. But you can also mix other fruits in for lovely flavours: I like to make apple-pear sauce, apple-plum sauce, apple-cranberry, and, my fave, apple-blackberry. (Which I haven't been able to make this year as I haven't found any blackberries! ;-()

Finally, another easy yummy thing for sliced fruit in syrup is to add a wee bit of liquer to each jar : I like a little Frangelico (hazelnut liqueur) in peaches. Many people like brandy with pears.

Enjoy! And congratulations on your adventures in canning!

Zabby

Zabby,
I hope you see this, because I would love to know how much and in what form you add ginger to your pears? That sounds very delicious.

Thanks, Abhaya

Zabby -thanks. I actually did make apple sauce too this weekend; I like mine really chunky and think store bought is mostly gross. I felt free adding cinnamon 'cuz mom always did that, but I hadn't thought of apple-blackberry...YUM.

And you can add liqueur? really? that opens whole realms of possibility. Could you do some type of orange flavored jelly with grand marnier?

Oh, and I second Abhaya, pears and ginger sound like an awesome combo, how do you do it? I have crystallized ginger, think that would work?

tricia,

I agree that store bought applesauce isn't worth looking at. I never ate it till I started making my own! Then I discovered you could make all kinds of wonderful combos. Pretty much any kind of fruit puree mixture is fine to can by following the instructions for applesauce (you can look up "fruit puree" in the Ball Blue Book); fruit is high in acid and sugar so is one of the simplest and safest things to can in a BWB.

Tonight I'm going to make "pearsauce" (just like applesauce but with pears, maybe a touch of vanilla added).

For adding ginger to pears, I peeled a chunk of fresh ginger --- about an inch cube, I think --- and cut it into a few pieces and put it into a little cloth spice bag and put that in the syrup before adding & heating the peaches.

(I have a wee bag made of some kind of fairly loosely woven cotton with a drawstring top that I use for this kind of thing---also for mulling cider or wine---I just wash it out each time. But you can tie up spices in any bit of cheesecloth or other open-weave clean cotton.)

As for orange jelly, take a look through the Ball book for marmalades --- I bet there's something good in there for your Grand Marinier!

Zabby

Bring your syrup to a boil with a teaspoon or two of dried lavender flowers, steep for 5-10 minutes and strain. It's delicious with peaches. Last year we ate all the lavender peaches before we ate the plain ones. You can use an earl gray tea bag too, but I haven't tried that. I think that pears might be tasty with mint, but I haven't tried that one yet either.

My other favorite is apple-quince sauce. Perfumed and delicious!

I think I already posted it here, but I got this ginger/pear recipe from a friend last year and loved it, even with the nasty little (but free) pears from my neighbour's tree that I couldn't do anything else with.

PEAR-GINGER CONSERVE

Time: 30 minutes preparation; 50 minutes cooking; 15 minutes processing.

4 Lbs. ripe pears, peeled and chopped (about 9 C)
3 C. sugar
1/2 C. lemon juice
4 tsp. grated lemon zest (no white pith)
1/4 C minced crystallized (or candied) ginger
1 cinnamon stick

Prepare 6 half-pint canning jars (run them through the dishwasher and leave them in the hot machine, or wash the jars in hot soapy water, rinse, and hold in hot clear water)

Combine pears with remaining ingredients in large saucepot. Cook, stirring frequently, until sugar dissolves. Cook rapidly until thick, stirring to prevent sticking, about 30 minutes. Mixture will mound up on spoon. Remove cinnamon stick.

Pour into prepared jars, leaving 1/4" headspace. Seal, and process for 15 minutes in a BWB.

thanks, lisapat!

Sounds lovely.

Z

Ooooh, that does sound lovely. My husband wants pear crisp this weekend, so maybe I'll just buy extra.

I brought a jar of my peaches to work to share, and almost wished I hadn't--it's selfish, but they were SO good. I used a half cup of applesauce to make applesauce cake with caramel frosting, and brought the peaches for the vegetarian/no gluten folks.

First day visiting this forum.
Look in the Ashley English book on jams, etc. The peach lavender butter is amazing. There are other interesting combos that I haven't tried yet but want to (such as Kumquat and 5 Spice Marmalade).

I quit using spice bags a few years ago for whole spices.
Now I use a tea ball, sure is easy to "fish out"

Welcome, oukay!

That butter does sound amazing.

I've made a blueberry-lavender jam that was delightful.
We should eat more flowers!

Z

hello,
It is funny that u mentioned the spices because last month i canned sliced peaches and i added a few allspice balls, cinnamin sticks (half)a clove in each of my quart jar of peaches and they looked amazing. When i opened a jar for my uncle he said " gee yosh the cinnamin is strong so yes i do agree the spices over time can get strong. So the next batch i made for my best friends son i just added a apice bag with nutmeg,cinn, and allspice, and 1 clove and took it out of the syrup just before i canned them and my goodness my girlfriend told me that her son 11Yrs old took the jars out of the cabinet and tries to keep them in his room away from his sister they say it tast like peach cobbler. I sent her 4 quart jars and at home i have 4 quart of the "spiced" jars so i think i will use them for peach cobbler and add some unspiced peaches to it. Maybe i just added too much seeing as how it looked so nice in the jars lol but from now on i season the syrup and take out the spice bag (thanks to Uncle Nat). On the cover of one of the Ball Canning books the jar of fruit has I think mint in it, it looks so nice. Dave did mention to me that the spices over time will get stronger but i guess i thought that was for the crushed tomatoes I didnt think about the clove and the cinnamin stick lol.
Yoshi4696