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This easy-to-follow tutorial will teach you how to peel peaches like a pro. Skinning peaches is simple and makes snacking, dessert prep, and canning easier.
There are three easy ways to peel peaches, and I’ll walk you through each of those methods in this post.
Skinning peaches is the first step in mastering the final boss of peach recipes – canning peaches.
How to Cut Cling Peaches
Peaches come in two main types, freestone and cling.
Freestone – when cut in half, the peach will separate easily from the pit. These make life so much easier!
Cling – the peach flesh will “cling” to the pit, making it very challenging to cut them in half. If you need to peel cling peaches, you’ll want to cut them into slices instead of peach halves before blanching them.
For help with tackling the task of working with the cling variety, check out this post on How to Cut a Peach.
Peeling Peaches by Freezing
Leaving the skin on when freezing fresh peaches is the absolute easiest way to peel them. There is no blanching required.
Dip the halved or sliced peaches in lemon juice water and place them cavity side-down (where the pit was) on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Freeze for 4-6 hours.
If you allow the frozen peaches to thaw just a little bit, the skin will slide right off. YEP, it’s that easy!
Pro Tips/Recipe Notes
- Peaches that are not ripe will not peel easily. You can always blanch and peel one “test” peach to see how easy the skin is to remove.
- Peeled peaches will oxidize after about 10-15 minutes if left out in the air. Either plan to use them soon, or keep them in a lemon juice waterbath.
- Yes, you can use these same methods for blanching and peeling tomatoes. It works like a dream for canning whole tomatoes, canning tomato soup, and canning stewed tomatoes.
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How to Peel Peaches
Ingredients
- peaches
- lemon juice or citric acid {optional}
- water
- ice
Instructions
- Prepare a large bowl with ice water. Set aside.
- Start a large saucepan of water boiling on the stove.
- Rinse peaches.
- If you are working on peeling a lot of peaches at once, set up a bowl of cold water treated with 1/4 cup of lemon juice or 1 tbsp of citric acid.
- Use a paring knife and cut the peach around the middle to separate. Remove the pit.
- Add the peaches to the boiling water and cook them until you see the skins start to come off (about 60-90 seconds).
- Use a slotted spoon and remove the peaches and place in the ice water for 2-3 minutes.
- Working with the peaches one at a time, remove any skin that hasn’t already slipped off.
Notes
- Peaches that are not ripe will not peel easily. You can always blanch and peel one “test” peach to see how easy the skin is to remove.
- Peeled peaches will oxidize after about 10-15 minutes if left out in the air. Either plan to use them soon, or keep them in a lemon juice waterbath.
- To peel whole peaches:
- Take a paring knife and cut a small “x” in the skin of the peach. You don’t need to cut deeply, just enough to break the skin.
- Similar to the process above, you’ll add the peaches to boiling water for 60-90 seconds and then dip them into an ice bath.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
