Canning Peaches

There seems to be two unwritten rules of canning in my kitchen - start projects too late in the evening, never have all the right ingredients. Oh, make that three unwritten rules - the pot must boil over. Tonight peaches. So here's where I've gone wrong so far. In the past, I've done peaches the traditional way, which is to say labor intensively. Wash 'em, boil 'em, pop 'em in cold water, skin 'em, chop 'em, jam 'em, process 'em. But this year, since I upgraded my kitchen with the it's-not-a-blender-it's-a-Vitamix, I thought I'd cut out the middle steps and just wash and blend before jamming and processing. This is a fine idea if you want a smooth, even consistency, but I'm more of a chunky jam sort of person. So, the it's-not-a-blender-it's-a-Vitamix worked its two-horse power magic, and Santa is just going to have to deliver peach butter this year.

If you know me at all, you know I've never been much of a linear person and the kitchen seems to aid and abet my most erratic side. I can almost hear ingredients asking me, "give me a try, come on, what could go wrong?" Ginger particularly seems to have a siren song of its own and my peaches remained un-gingered only because I used the last of it this afternoon in a kale apple cucumber smoothie (try it, it's power packed and yummy). While I'm mentioning my a-linearity, I will just break here for a disclaimer in case you're getting nervous. I am very law-abiding when it comes to the actual process of canning, even remembering to adjust for Missoula's altitude. While I'll risk cooking up an odd concoction, I'm not a big one for taking chances with botulism.

So tonight's kitchen improv went as follows. I used a sea vegetable, Agar Agar, in place of the ubiquitous Kraft foods Sure-Jell. Nothing against the old stand-by, which has served me through dozens of jammings, I just felt tempted to dust-it up a bit. And then since I have not a lick of sugar in the house, and because it is physically impossible for me to dump six cups of the white stuff into gloriously sweet peaches anyway, and because, as I said, I just wanted to dust-it up a bit, I found some Agave and tipped it in a few times and then once more for good measure.

Though unsure how the whole soupy mess will turn out, I've got 12 mason jars of peach agar agar agave-sweetened butter processing away in a boiling water bath. Now I just have to scrape off the 1/4 inch of peach shmear caramelized in the burners since they'll be pressed into service again tomorrow. No doubt too late in the evening. I've got another box of peaches ready to roll and hopefully I'll make it to the store for some ginger. And maybe some lemon peel. And what do you think about a splash of balsamic?