Holy moley. This is amazing stuff. Too bad the yield was so small.Very tasty stuff.

Peaches have a huge amount of pectin in their skins, so they should stay on. When they were cooked down, though, the skins mostly disappeared.

Tonight, we had some extra pectin from an orange marmalade project from a while ago. We did not use the lemon membranes & seeds, but I added them to the recipe since that is how we usually add more pectin. You could probably take the seeds out completely and just cook them down longer. But we were OK with either a loose jam or a firm jam so we didn’t really fuss with this. No fuss = the Happy Girl Kitchen way. 🙂

• 2.75 # peaches
• 3/4 C sugar
• 1 lemon
• 3/4 – 1 t cinnamon (to taste)
• 1/4 t ground clove

1. Chop the peaches into thumb-sized portions.
2. Juice the lemon. Set aside half of the juice. Pull the lemon membranes and seeds out and put them in a muslin bag in the ‘fridge.
3. Pour the sugar and lemon juice over the peaches. You do not need to mix.
4. Let the peaches macerate for 6-48 hours, covered with a towel. If you let them sit out for more than 10 hours (maybe less), you need to stick them in the ‘fridge, as they will start to ferment.
5. Put the peaches in a 3 quart pot. String the muslin bag with seeds just above the bottom of the pan, tied to the handle. You want them touching the peaches, but not burning the bag. Lemon seeds and membranes have a ton of naturally occurring pectin. That’s how you can get away with so little sugar in this recipe.
6. Get water bath canner ready and begin heating up water.
7. Cook down the peaches on a medium-high heat, stirring constantly (you can let them go for a minute or 2, but watch that they don’t burn). The idea is to break them down, and get rid of the water inside.
8. If the fruit doesn’t break down enough, your interrogation skills need brushing up. Use a potato masher to break them down. You are in control. You are the boss!
9. Add cinnamon and clove to taste.
10. Fill 4 half-pint jars with the beautiful mixture. Process in the water bath canner for 8 minutes.
11. Yield 4 half-pint jars.

Adapted from a recipe from Happy Girl Kitchen and a smattering of other sources.