Peach Marmalade Canning Recipe

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One of the great things about home canning is that you can prepare and preserve batches of special foods that would be very difficult to find in a store. Peach marmalade is an excellent example. Its delicious blend of citrus and peach flavors is truly habit forming. If you are pursuing a local food diet, it is challenging because peaches and citrus do not ripen at the same time of year, but compromising with an imported orange and lemon when the peaches are in season is well worth deviating from a strictly local food approach.

In this canning recipe you can either chop the peaches or puree them. I prefer it chunky, but making a smooth marmalade with the pureed peaches would be fine.

Peach marmalade ingredients:

1 orange

1 lemon

1/4 cup water

3 pounds peaches

1 (1-3/4 ounces) package powdered fruit pectin

5 cups sugar

Quarter the orange and lemon and remove any seeds. Then cut the orange and lemon wedges into very thin slices. Cook the citrus slices and the 1/4 cup of water in a saucepan. Cover the pan and simmer the orange and lemon for 20 minutes.

Prepare the peaches by peeling them, pitting them, and dicing into small chunks or puree them. Combine the peaches with the orange and lemon mixture in a big stock pot. Stir the pectin into the fruit and bring to a full rolling boil. Then stir in the sugar. As the sugar dissolves bring the mixture back to a full rolling boil while stirring constantly. Boil for 1 minute.

Remove from the heat and skim off foam. Ladle the marmalade into sterilized half pint or pint jars. Make sure to stir up the marmalade as you go so that the fruit remains evenly distributed. Leave a 1/4 inch headspace in the jars, wipe clean the rims, and apply the lids.

Process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath and then remove. Leave jars undisturbed for at least 12 hours before checking the seals. Wipe clean the jars and lids and store in a cupboard for up to one year. Yields 6 to 8 half pints.