My friend Jack Crane wanted to make Peach Jam as a thank you gift for his teachers, and he wanted some help. Thoughtful last day of school gift, right? I planned a little field trip of my own to help Jack learn how to make Peach Jam, but I may have been more harm than help. Things didn’t go quite as we’d planned, but the day was both a lot of fun, as well as a good lesson in how to roll with it and have fun in the kitchen. We ended up making shelf stable peach compote, rather than jam, but it was truly delicious, and we had a ball. We also learned a lot about how to prep for our next canning adventure. I have to say that making Peach Jam with Jack Crane was one of my favorite days in the kitchen to date.

We wanted to make low sugar jam with local peaches, so we used the recipe on the Ball low-sugar pectin. They were so beautiful and delicious that we had to sample some of them. Here’s the website: http://www.freshpreserving.com/tools/pectin-calculator# It turned out that we cut the sugar too much, didn’t cook the jam down enough, and probably shouldn’t have ignored the warning not to make a double batch, but hey, the end result was delicious if not a little thin. I ended up using some right away to make my really awesome Bourbon Peach Brisket. And I reduced the rest down further and resealed the jars, which meant I did have to boil them again to ensure everything was sterile. That said, the thin version is perfect for topping ice cream, and whisking into cocktails and lemonades, so when life gives you peach compote instead of peach jam, don’t be afraid to make lemonade! We cut an “x” into the non-stem side of each peach and then blanched it for a minute in boiling water to make it easy to remove the skins. Then we peeled them. We cut the peaches and tossed the stones. We cooked the peaches according to the Ball instructions and added sugar, pectin, and citrus per their recipe. Then we cooked it down and poured it into sterile jars. Then we boiled the sealed jars for 10 minutes. Finally, the jam was ready to cool, receive cool labels that Jack Crane made, and be gifted to his favorite teachers. We made a lot of jam and were very proud of our hard work.