Canning Peaches {How to Can Peaches}

An easy step-by-step tutorial on Canning Peaches. This recipe for how to preserve peaches is perfect for beginners and experienced canners alike. Instructions include low-sugar and no-sugar options. 

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Peaches are one of the easiest fruits to can. Sure, you have to peel them, but that can be accomplished fairly easily.

Even better, I’m going to teach you how to make canned peaches in light syrup, so you can actually taste the fruit and not just sugar.

How to Can Peaches 

*I’ll walk you through the process with photos and tips below. And a printable and detailed recipe card is available at the bottom of the post.

CANNING PREP

Prepare your water bath canner by filling it with water. You need to have enough water to cover the jars by 1 inch once the water is boiling.

Set the canner on the stove. Turn the burner to high. Once it reaches a boil, reduce it to a simmer. You want to keep the water hot so that everything is ready when the fruit is.

Wash and clean your jars. You’ll want to keep them warm to avoid having them crack when placed in the canner. You can fill them with hot water, or place them on a tray in the oven at 170F.

Wash your lids and set them aside in a clean place. You no longer need to simmer lids in water to keep them sterile. Woot!

Wash your fruit. I just run them under water and rub my hands on them to give the outside a scrub. Use a paring knife and cut the peach around the middle to separate it.

Remove the pit

Put the halves in a large bowl of water treated with lemon juice or citric acid. 

In a medium-sized pot, combine your sugar/honey/or juice, and water to create the syrup (see the syrup chart below). Pro tip: if you’re planning to do a large batch all at once, I use my crockpot to create and keep the syrup hot. It frees up space on the stove.

Add one layer of peaches at a time to a pot of boiling water for about 60 seconds. Once you can see the skin starting to come away from the flesh, it’s time to take them out.

Remove using a slotted spoon and place in an ice bath for 1 minute.

Use the slotted spoon to remove the peaches from the ice bath. Grab one and gently peel the skin back.

Proceed using either the raw pack or hot pack method detailed a bit further down in the post.

Add the fruit cavity-side down (where the pit was) to your sanitized and warm canning jars. This is easiest done with a fork. Repeat with other peach halves until you have filled the jar. Pro tip: depending on the size of the fruit, each quart will fit about 3-3.5 peaches.

At this point, return your water in the canner back to a rolling boil.

Using a canning funnel, ladle hot syrup into the jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Headspace is the distance between the top of the food and the top of the jar. You may need to use a spoon to gently smoosh down the fruit a bit.

Using a long utensil (I prefer a plastic chopstick), remove all the air bubbles from the jar. Clean the rim of the jar very well with a hot damp rag. Place a clean lid on the jar. Add a ring, and tighten to fingertip tight.

Gently place your jars in the canner. Put the lid on, and set your timer. Pro tip: If you don’t have enough jars to fill the canner, consider Canning Water in a few jars to stock your emergency drinking water supplies.

Hot packed pints should process for 20 minutes, and quarts for 25 (see chart below). Pro tip: the water must return to a boil in the canner before you can start the timer.

Raw Pack for Canning Peaches

Raw packing simply means placing the peeled fruit in the jars without pre-cooking them, filling the jars with hot syrup, and processing them in the canner.

If you are canning your peaches without additional added sugar (sugar, honey, fruit juice), you must hot pack the fruit.

Raw packing is much faster than then a hot packing process, but there are some drawbacks. No matter how well you pack the jars, the density of the fruit will change during their time in the canner.

This often leads to something called “fruit float” in which the fruit will float to the top of the jar, leaving all syrup on the bottom. You’ll find this when you’re canning pears, canning apricots, and canning whole tomatoes as well. There is nothing wrong with fruit float as long as your jars are still sealed.

Help! Why Are My Jars Leaking Juice?

If you find that juice has leaked out after they have sealed, you have experienced a common canning issue called siphoning. It happens to the best of us!

Siphoning is typically caused by not allowing the jars to rest in the canner after they have finished processing. In the directions above, you’ll see that I recommend you remove the canner from the burner, remove the lid, and let it sit for 5 minutes.

This is important as it allows the jars time to rest before being allowed to cool on the counter. Doing this process will significantly cut down on siphoning.

If you have siphoning in your jars, follow these steps:

• Check – are the lids still sealed?
• Look – have you lost less than half of the amount of liquid in the jar?
• Examine – does the fruit look fresh with bright colors?

If the answer to the above three steps is “yes!”, then they are safe to eat. If you lost quite a bit of syrup, the uncovered fruit will turn color more quickly. Plan to eat those jars first.

Can I make canned peach slices?

Yes! If you’d prefer to cut your fruit into slices, that is absolutely fine. Think about how you plan to use them after canning. Do you want to eat them as is? If so, halved peaches will be the easiest and fastest way to can them.

If you use them in crisps/crumbles, other desserts, or yogurt (related: Easy Instant Pot Yogurt) slices make a lot of sense!

Pro tip: with canning peach slices, you’ll need to put a bit more effort into removing bubbles from the jars. There will be more opportunities for “pockets” to occur in the jars, and those bubbles need to be removed for safety.

<<<<click here to print the processing times and syrup cheat sheet>>>>