orange food week, part 2: canning peach butter

[moominmolly]

First, I have to say, I really love those crazy canners, Bernice and Paul. Seriously. Not only do they have recipes for just about anything I'd want to can, I can also check out everything they've canned since 1966. Note that occasionally, they have no canning record for the year because they were working in China.

M: Look. Everything they've canned for the past FORTY YEARS.
D: I love the internet.
M: Me too!
D: Like, "What's In My Closet?"!
M: I don't know! Let's ask THE INTERNET!

Anyway. Yeah. I love these folks.

So! Tonight's canning steps:

- Buy asston of peaches (done earlier)
- Peel and quarter 18 peaches. Save the peels in an extra bowl. This is easier, apparently, if you blanch the peaches first, but I'm lazy.
- Simmer the peach bits in water until significantly mushier than when you started.
- Ladle into a blender and puree.
- Pour into crockpot.
- For every 2 cups peach puree, add 1 c sugar. I had about 10 cups puree. Woo!
- Add: generous dose of brandy, clove, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Stir.
- Turn crockpot up to high and leave alone for a few hours, stirring in a rather desultory way from time to time.

[time passes. go take a shower and watch cirque du soleil video with dilletante.]

According to the Nolls, peach butter wants to be canned for 10 minutes. According to epicurious, things canned for 10 minutes or longer do not have separately-boiled jars. So:

- In canning bath, bring jars to a boil. Turn back down to just below a simmer (keep the water hot, but not TOO hot)
- Boil the lids separately, quickly, and leave them in hot water.
- One at a time, bring the jars out of the canning bath with tongs, and ladle peach butter in to within 1/2" of the top.
- Wipe jar threads clean.
- Add jar lid (with tongs! TONGS!) and ring, and replace jar into water bath.
- Repeat until you've put all the peach butter in jars.
- Turn the heat up to high.
- When the water reaches a boil, turn it back down to a slow boil and boil for the appropriate time.
- After they've cooled, press the little button thingy in the center of the jar lid. If it stays down, the jar is sealed and can be put wherever you want! If it pops back up, refrigerate and eat quickly.
- Celebrate!

Side note: if you save the peach peels in a bowl, you can puree them afterwards with orange juice, a splash of lemon for tang, and maybe those Frozen Gobbets of Mango from Trader Joe's you've got left in the back of the freezer. Then pour into leftover Fresh Samantha bottles and enjoy fibery mango-peach nectar at your leisure. Not only is this tasty, it means you don't have to obsess about cutting as little flesh as possible off when you peel the peaches, since you're going to eat it anyway.

Why am I obsessed with orange things this week? No idea! I even bought orange-flavored Mr. Clean.

Anyway, off to shower.

Comments

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

They're just CANNING MADMEN. Who are we to doubt? (Though that is a suspicious amount of greenbeans. Nobody could like greenbeans that much.)

[sconstant.livejournal.com]

I don't doubt that they're telling the truth. I just think that 1966 was clearly not their first year canning, or else they're from a family for which canning is a huge tradition. Noone can, in their first year, can 100 gallons. Can they?

S.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Ahh, I see! That is kind of odd. Either it was their first year, and they just had a whole lot of time on their hands, or it WASN'T their first year, and they just suddenly decided to write down everything they'd canned in a little notebook for safe keeping. But... why?

I guess that's a question very firmly entrenched in the modern age: Why would you write that down, if you couldn't post it to the internet? My mom had a little notebook recording every Christmas ornament she'd ever bought or received, and which Christmas she'd received it, with notes going back to her first Christmas with my father. But, I mean, that was stuff she dragged out year after year and could get sentimental about. I just can't see saying, "Oh, Bernice, remember the fifty-seventh quart of greenbeans in 1966?"

Maybe they'd canned in small batches before but then they moved to a place with a gigantic cellar in 1966.