Before anyone fusses at me, yes I know you are only supposed to use approved recipes. However in this case I'll compare the recipe to know quantities and use my judgment. I think there is enough vinegar for the amount of low acid ingredients esp since peaches are acidic. You have about 1 1/4 cups low acid ingredients and 1/2 cup vinegar (2.5 to 1). Compare that to the surejell hot pepper jelly recipe that has 4 cups low acid ingredients and 1 cup vinegar (4 to 1). http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/surejell-hot-pepper-jelly-51962.aspx These are the proportions from Caribbean Peach Chutney in the Ball Complete Book. For our purposes I will estimate low based on their guide and say 3/4 cup per onion and bell pepper. So the ginger, onion and bell pepper together would be 4 cups plus the banana pepper to 1 cup vinegar (also 4 to 1). Of course you have the addition of the candied citrus peel which is also a low acid ingredient. 1 cup peeled, chopped gingerroot 1 cup malt vinegar 10 cups chopped, pitted, peeled peaches (Their guide says 1 lb peaches should yield about 2 1/4 cups sliced peaches or 1 3/4 cups crushed) 2 cup lightly packed brown sugar 2 onions, finely chopped 2 green bell peppers, seeded and finely chopped 1 hot banana peppers, seeded and finely chopped 1 cup dark raisins 1 cup golden raisins 1 cup mixed candied peel* (of your choice) 1 tablespoon salt 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/4 teaspoon cloves Here is an approved recipe with mangoes which are less acidic than peaches (although maybe similar if underripe?) The proportions are very similar. Personally, I would leave it alone. But if you have anyone in your family with a compromised immune system or you have a low comfort level with these things, by all means, freeze it. Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can_06/mango_chutney.html

I happened to be sifting through old computer files today and found two recipes I had saved from the old fruitcake posts. RE: Church of the Besotted Fruitcake * Posted by: Readinglady z8 OR (My Page) on Sat, Oct 8, 05 at 22:29 Here's the recipe from that thread with her comments. (We actually ended up with two lengthy fruitcake threads, as I remember.) I don't think we've heard from Mrs. Bartholomew for a while. Hopefully she returns as fruitcake season moves into full swing. "Here is the recipe I use for Christmas fruitcake - more or less, anyway, because I tend to use different types and proportions of fruits and nuts each year. I candy my own pineapple, angelica, and cherries, but you can use store-bought and give them a good rinse to get the extra sugar off before you use them. Makes two large loaves. 1/2 to 3/4 litre white rum 1 pound candied cherries (substitute angelica for a handful of the cherries, if you have it) 3/4 pound candied pineapple 1/4 pound candied citrus peel 1 pound large sultanas 1/2 pound blanched whole almonds 1/2 pound walnut halves 1 pound unsalted butter, softened 2 and 1/4 cups of sugar 6 large eggs 4 cups of white cake flour (not self-raising) 1/4 cup lemon extract Warm 1/2 litre of the rum until it seems just about to boil, and immediately remove it from the heat. Soak the cherries, pineapple, citrus peel, sultanas, angelica and nuts in the rum overnight. Strain, reserving the rum, and set the fruits and nuts aside in a very large mixing bowl. (You don't have to heat the rum up if it's too much trouble, but it soaks into the fruit much better if it's warm). Beat the butter and sugar until very light and fluffy. Beat in half of the eggs, then half the flour, then the rest of the eggs, then the rest of the flour, then the lemon extract. Pour the batter over the fruit and nuts and stir well. If your loaf pans are non-stick, just butter them. I use a stick of butter like a crayon to do this. Otherwise, line with buttered parchment paper. Scrape the batter into the pans. Bake in a preheated 300 degree Fahrenheit oven for 45 minutes, then cover the pans with foil and bake for another 45 minutes. Watch carefully near the end of the cooking time; as soon as the cakes start to pull away from the edges, or resist when you poke them gently, they are ready. It is better to underbake than overbake. Let them rest on a rack until they've cooled to room temperature. When the cakes have cooled but are still in the tins, carefully poke several holes through each loaf with a long, thin skewer. Heat the reserved rum - again not letting it quite boil - and drizzle it over the cakes. If the fruit and nuts soaked up most of the rum, add another 1/4 litre of rum before heating it. Leave it for 15 minutes so that the rum will more or less soak through the cakes, although some may still remain in the bottom of the tins when you remove the cakes. Wrap each cake carefully for storage. If you have large enough linen pudding-bags, you can lightly moisten these with rum and slip a cake inside each one. Otherwise, you can wrap the cakes in the brown paper they were baked in, which should be thoroughly permeated with the rum. Whether you've used cloth or brown paper, wrap the cakes in another layer of plastic wrap or tuck them into a plastic bag for further protection. The longer you leave the cakes before serving, the better. If you won't be able to resist tasting, pour a little of the batter into a ramekin to bake it separately and eat it while you're wrapping the other two cakes." I can see I need to buy the ingredients soon. Just reading the recipe makes my mouth water. Carol ============================ It's Fruitcake Time Again! Posted by gardengrl Orlando (My Page) on Thu, Oct 6, 05 at 9:03 Hi Everyone, If you remember last year at this time, the Harvest forum had quite a thread going on fruitcakes. Well, last year I made two versions from posted recipes and they were the BEST! I call them "rum cakes" in order to avoid the fruitcake stigma. :-) I made my cakes in October (both a dark cake and a yellow cake), refridgerated them (since I'm in the south), and "basted" them every week with whatever version of alcohol I wanted. They were a hit during Thanksgiving and Christmas. So, go raid your liquor cabinet gang; it's fruitcake time! Here are two recipes from last year; both recipes make 2 fruitcake loaves when baked in a typical loaf pan. I've modified my versions a little from the original recipes. Dark Fruitcake Approximately 25 ounces of golden raisins (add more or less to your preference) 2 cups coarsly chopped walnuts or pecans 2 1/4 cups sifted, all purpose flour 1 cup shortening (I used butter) 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup molasses 5 eggs 3/4 tsp salt 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp each, cloves and mace (nutmeg) 1/2 cup orange juice 1 cup blackberry jam or preserves Optional: Place raisins and nuts in a glass bowl or pan and cover with dark rum or brandy. Allow to soak 24 hours. Drain and reserve the used liquor when finished. Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Mix flour with salt, baking soda, and spices, set aside. Cream shortening or butter until fluffy; Gradually add sugar and molasses. Beat in eggs, add flour mixture in increments until well mixed. Stir in raisins, nuts, orange juice and jam. Line loaf pans with parchment paper. Spray parchment with non-stick spray. Pour batter evenly into two loaf pans and bake approximately 3 1/2 hours (or until toothpick inserted comes out clean). It really depends on how deep you pour the batter. When done, take cakes out of oven, allow to cool for approximately 5-10 minutes. Invert loaf pans, remove cakes, and allow to cool on cooling racks. When cool, take a toothpick and poke holes into the top and bottom of fruitcake. Baste fruitcake with raisin infused rum/brandy, allowing liquor to soak into holes. If your in the south, place cakes in an airtight container and store in the fridge. If up north in a cool environment, wrap cakes in wax paper followed by tin foil, and store in a cool place. Baste cakes with raisin liquor or other dark liquor every week until the holidays. Yellow Fruitcake White rum: optional 1 to 1 1/2 pounds of candied or dried fruit. I use a "harvest mixture" of dried fruit from Sams, which includes dried cranberries, dried cherries, dried strawberris, and dried blueberries. 1/2 pound of nuts (your choice, more or less nuts to your preference) 1 pound unsalted butter, softened 2 1/4 cups sugar 6 large eggs 4 cups of white cake flour (not self rising) 1/4 cup lemon extract Warm rum in a saucepan or microwave until it is just about to boil. If you don't want alcohol, feel free to use a juice of your choice. Place fruit and nuts in a large bowl or pan and pour hot rum/liquid over. Soak overnight, drain fruit and reserve the used liquor when finished. Preheat oven 300 degrees Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in half the eggs, then half the flour, then the rest of the eggs, then the rest of the flour. Add lemon extract. Stir in soaked fruit and nuts. Line 2 loaf pans with parchment paper. Spray paper with non-stick spray. Pour batter evenly into both pans. Bake cakes uncovered for 45 minutes, then cover with tin foil and bake another 45 minutes. Watch carefully near the end of cooking time; as soon as the cakes start to pull away from the edges of the pans, or resist when you poke them gently, they are ready. It's better to underbake than overbake. Remove cakes from oven and cool for 5-10 minutes. Invert loaf pans, remove cakes, and allow to completely cool on cooling racks. Follow basting and storing process as listed for the dark cakes (basting with alcohol optional, you can use fruit juice). Use the reserved dried fruit infused liquor for basting. I alternate basting with Grand Mariner (sp?) every week.

Not sure just what's going on here, I submitted this post several hours ago, but it never showed up here. Probably hit a wrong button or something. Anyhow, PWM, I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you, I've been a bit under the weather for a few days, So everything around here is wa-a--ay behind. But here's the aforementioned recipe: Bourbon Pecan Cake Ingredients: 2 C whole red candied cherries 2 C seedless white raisins 2 C Bourbon 2 C butter, softened 2 C granulated sugar 2 C dark brown sugar, firmly packed 8 eggs, separated 5 C sifted all-purpose flour 4 C pecan halves 1 ½ tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt 2 tsp ground nutmeg Directions: Grease a 10 in tube pan, line with wax paper or parchment paper, grease and lightly flour the paper. Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Combine cherries, raisins and bourbon in large mixing bowl. Cover tightly and let stand overnight in the refrigerator. (My note: This will be fine if left for several days. Once I left it for almost two weeks, no harm done). Drain the fruit, reserve the bourbon. Place butter in large bowl, beat on medium speed with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add sugars gradually, beating on medium speed until well blended. Combine 1/4 C of the flour with the pecan halves. Sift remaining flour with the baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Add 2 C of the flour to the creamed mixture, mix in thoroughly. Add the reserved bourbon and the remaining flour alternately, ending with flour. Beat well after each addition Beat egg whites until stiff, but not dry, fold them gently into the cake batter. Fold the drained fruits and floured pecans into the cake batter, blending thoroughly. Pour batter into prepared pan, to within 1 in of the top. (If extra batter, bake in appropriately sized loaf pan, prepared the same as the tube pan.) Bake tube pan 4 to 5 hours, and loaf pan about 2 hours, or until cake tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean. Be careful not to over bake! Cool cakes in pans on wire racks 2 to 3 hours. Remove cakes from pans, peel off the paper. Wrap cakes in cheesecloth saturated with bourbon, then wrap in foil or plastic wrap and store in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator for several weeks. (I have found it needs at least 6 weeks ‘aging’ to fully develop flavor) Keep the cheesecloth damp with additional bourbon as needed.. A glaze can be made, using confectioner’s sugar mixed with enough bourbon to make it ‘pourable’. Drizzle over cake sparingly! Or simply dust cakes with powdered sugar before presenting! If using the bourbon glaze, don’t serve to children. Hopefully I can do it right this time, and it will post! Rusty

I do it on the stove top.....when you have to start and stop many times, it makes sense to be cooking in a pot where you can watch the results happen. All things are not easier cooked in a microwave. Linda C