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Canning peaches is surprisingly easy to do at home. All you need is a few jars, a big pot, and a little sugar and you’re on your way. Home-canned peaches stored in glass mason jars also taste dramatically better than store-bought peaches in tin cans, and if you have your own peach tree, they’re almost free.
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We’re just getting in our first peach trees this year, and it’ll be a while until we have our own homegrown peaches. We’re in zone 4, and it’s hard to find peach varieties for cold climates. Plant breeders have been hard at work, and there are now several varieties that produce well in our area.
In the meantime, our local food coop imports Amish peaches from Pennsylvania by the caseload. Every year I buy a case and can up a big batch for wintertime peach cobbler.
Peaches, or more specifically, peach jam was the first thing I canned with a mentor in my youth. Call it a gateway fruit if you want, but I was hooked. My first batch was admittedly a bit lackluster.
I was a kid, and I got to choose how much sugar went into the batch. At that point in my life, more sugar made everything better and I just about ruined the batch. You could barely taste the fruit, and peach-colored candy is a better description of the results.
Fast forward a few decades and I still can’t handle over-sweetened canned goods, jam or otherwise. I use very light syrup when canning peaches, but there are plenty of choices based on your preferences.
Peach Varieties Safe for Canning
All known varieties of yellow-fleshed peaches are safe for water bath canning at home. No exceptions. White-fleshed peaches are another matter.
Scientists at the National Center for Home Food Preservation recently discovered that some varieties of white-flesh peaches may not be safe for canning. While yellow peaches are a high acid food, some varieties of white flesh peaches have a more delicate flavor and far less acidity. Fruits must have a pH below 4.6 to be safe for canning, and white-fleshed peaches may not quite make it.
There’s currently no tested safe method for canning white-fleshed peaches, but theoretically, they should be fine for canning using the same methods as other low acid fruits. Home-canned mangoes are one example of another low acid fruit that’s not acidic enough on its own, but it should, in theory, be safe with added lemon juice.
Pressure canning is also another option if you have a bumper crop of peaches. While you don’t need to pressure can yellow peaches, some people prefer to pressure can in general and there is an approved method.
Yellow peaches are pressure canned at 6 pounds of pressure for 10 minutes anywhere below 2,000 feet in elevation. White peaches would require either higher pressure to be safe, and that might just pulverize the tender fruit.
As always, if you’re canning at home, use your best judgment. If you have white peaches to preserve, the only approved method is freezing, so maybe skip the canner altogether to be on the safe side?
Choosing Peaches for Canning
Just about any yellow fleshed peach can be preserved by canning, but some will do better than others. Here are a few things to consider when choosing peaches for canning:
- Freestone or Clingstone – Most grocery store peaches are freestone these days, and the flesh comes away easily from the pit. Older varieties and backyard trees may be clingstone, which makes it nearly impossible to can peach halves. Clingstone peaches are a bit more work, but they often have amazing flavor in return, just plan on canning them as slices.
- Size – Larger peaches have more flesh per peach, and will save you quite a bit of time in peeling. If you’re planning on canning peach halves instead of slices, aim for small to medium-sized peaches so that the halves will fit in a jar.
- Ripeness – Very ripe peaches have soft flesh and are lower acid than firm peaches. Choose peaches that are just barely ripe. The flesh should still be firm but they’ve lost all the green around the stem. Just ripe peaches will hold together better, and result in a much better texture in your home-canned peaches.
Syrup for Canning Peaches
Peaches are quite sweet on their own, and the fact that they’re high acid means they can be water bath canned in just about any liquid. Plain water works, but will wash out the flavor. Fruit juice or very light syrup work better, since they’re about as sweet as the peaches and won’t leach any of the sugars from the peaches, and they won’t make them any sweeter either.
If you’re not up for a low sugar recipe, light and medium syrups work just fine too. Here’s how to make a number of different syrups for canning peaches:
- Water Pack – Simple enough, just make sure the water is boiling hot before it goes into the jars.
- Juice Pack – Fruit juices such as apple or white grape juice are a natural way to can peaches without refined sugar. Just like water pack, be sure that the juices are boiling hot when packing the jars.
- Very Light Syrup – This mimics the natural sugar content of peaches and will result in the most natural flavor. For a 9-pint canner load, use 3/4 cups sugar and 6 1/2 cups water. For a 7-quart canner load, add 1 1/4 cups sugar to 10 1/2 cups water.
- Light Syrup – For the most part, light syrup is used to add just a hint of sweetness to fruits that are very sweet already. Peaches are a great choice for light syrup, and that’s often how they’re packed in the grocery store. For a 9-pint canner load, use 1 1/2 cups sugar and 5 3/4 cups water. For a 7-quart canner load, add 2 1/4 cups sugar to 9 cups water.
- Medium Syrup – If you like your canned peaches really sweet, choose medium syrup. They’ll be pretty over the top, don’t say I didn’t warn you…For a 9-pint canner load, use 2 1/4 cups sugar and 5 1/4 cups water. For a 7-quart canner load, add 3 3/4 cups sugar to 8 1/4 cups water.
Canning Peaches with Honey or Maple
Since peaches can be canned in just about any liquid, the amount or type of sugar in the syrup doesn’t affect their safety. Honey canned peaches are a popular choice because the honey flavor complements the flavor of the peaches. We make our own maple on our Vermont homestead, so that’s an obvious choice for us.
Whether you’re using honey or maple to sweeten the canning syrup, use about 2/3rds as much as you would sugar. Honey and maple are both much sweeter than sugar, and you’ll need less volume to get the same amount of sweetness compared to white sugar.
For example, if you’re making a 9-pint canner batch of canned peaches with very light syrup, use 1/2 cup of honey instead of 3/4 cup of sugar added to 6 1/2 cups of water. Since the sugar level isn’t crucial to the safety of the canned peaches, feel free to approximate. Roughly 2/3rds will give you a similar level of sweetness, but there’s no need to be exact.
Hot Pack or Raw Pack Canning
There are two main ways to pack peaches for canning, or any fruit for that matter. Peaches are safe and approved for both methods, and they each have their pros and cons. While I raw pack my canned pineapple without issue, peaches aren’t as forgiving. Hot pack peaches make dramatically better quality canned peaches.
- Hot Pack Canned Peaches – Peaches are quickly boiled in their canning syrup to heat them and pre-cook them before canning. This drives off some of the air that’s naturally in the fruit’s tissues. Removing that extra air prevents the peaches from floating, and helps keep the canned peaches from browning over time. In many areas, this is the only method approved for entry into a state fair because the peaches retain their quality better over time, and they’re more attractive in the jar.
- Raw Pack Canned Peaches – For a raw pack, the peeled and pitted peaches are packed into jars raw. The canning liquid, usually syrup of some kind, is brought to a boil and poured over the raw peaches before the jars are sealed and processed in a water bath canner. It’s much easier to pack the jars since the fruit isn’t hot, and this is a good option if the peaches will be eaten in the next 2-3 months. If you’re storing raw pack peaches for longer periods of time they may brown or deteriorate. Even if they discolor, they’re still safe to eat for just as long as hot pack peaches.
How Many Peaches Fit in a Canning Jar?
Obviously, the number of peaches that’ll fit in a canning jar varies based on how big the peaches are. Roughly speaking though, it takes around 17 to 18 pounds of peaches to make a 7-quart canner batch or around 10 to 12 pounds for a 9-pint canner batch. That works out to about 2-3 pounds per quart jar or 1 1/4 pounds per pint jar.
That said, if you’re canning halved peaches, slightly less will fit in a jar. Sliced peaches pack more densely in a canning jar, and you may be able to fit slightly more.
Regardless of how you’ve sliced the peaches, be sure to pack them into the jars as densely as you can. Peaches shrink during the canning process, and if you don’t really cram them into the jars you’ll end up with sad looking half-filled jars.
My giant farmhouse sink holds just over one canner load (7 quarts) worth of peaches, and I use that sink to cold water bath them after a quick blanching for peeling. This time I had gigantic peaches, so it took about 28 peaches or 4 huge peaches per jar. It’d take 5-6 average-sized peaches to fill a quart jar.
Peeling Peaches for Canning
The first step to canning peaches is removing their fuzzy skins. Bring a pot of water to a boil on the stove, and then dip each peach in the boiling water for 2-3 minutes. With very ripe peaches, it’ll take less time and firmer peaches require more cooking to peel.
If the peach skins just aren’t listening, try making a shallow X on the bottom of each peach with a sharp knife before placing the peach in boiling water. This will help the skin start to peel easier.
Scoop the peaches out of the boiling water with a slotted spoon and drop them into a sink or bowl full of ice water. Once they’re cool, the skins should remove easily with your fingers.
How to Can Peaches
Now that we’ve gone through just about every variation and option available, how do I do it?
In my kitchen, I can peaches in very light syrup using the hot pack method. Most often, I use quart jars because that’s just about the right size for a cobbler to feed my family of 4. Here’s my simple recipe for canning peaches at home, but hopefully you’ve learned a thing or two about how to modify the recipe to suit your family’s needs.
Start by peeling and slicing the peaches. Make a syrup by bringing the right proportion of sugar and water to a boil in a large pot.
For very light syrup, you’ll need 10 1/2 cups water and 1 1/4 cups sugar. Add the peaches into the boiling syrup, wait until the syrup returns to a boil, and then cook the peaches for a few minutes.
Pack the hot peaches tightly into quart or pint mason jars, and top the jars with boiling syrup. Remove the air bubbles, and be sure to leave 1 inch of headspace. Attach 2-part canning lids and process in a water bath canner for 25 minutes for quarts and 20 minutes for pints (under 1000 feet elevation).
Peach Canning Recipes
There are plenty of ways to preserve peaches at home, and these peach canning recipes will keep your pantry stocked!
Canning Peaches
Equipment
Ingredients
- 18 pounds peaches
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 10 1/2 cups water
- boiling water, for peeling peaches
Instructions
- Bring a pot of water to a boil and submerge peaches for 30-90 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon and cool in ice water. Peel the peaches with your hands, the skins should slip off easily. If they don’t repeat the boiling process.
- Slice the peaches in half and remove pits. They can be canned as half peaches, or sliced, it’s up to you.
- Bring 10 1/2 cups water and 1 1/4 cups sugar to a boil in a stockpot. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Add peaches and cook for 1-2 minutes.
- Ladle hot peaches into prepared quart canning jars (or pints if you prefer). This recipe should yield a full 7-quart canner batch.
- Top the peaches in the jars with syrup, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and seal with 2 part canning lids.
- Process in a water bath canner, 20 minutes for pints and 25 minutes for quarts under 1000 feet in elevation. If you prefer to pressure can, process for 10 minutes at 5 pounds pressure in a weighted gauge pressure canner. (Use 6 pounds in a dial gauge pressure canner.)
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Ways to Preserve Peaches
Looking for more ways to preserve peaches?
I have a question. You mentioned in this article that very ripe peaches have less acid. Is it necessary then to add lemon juice or something when canning? I had to work and now my peaches are very ripe and I have to can them quickly or freeze them.
So long as they’re yellow peaches they should be below the threshold even at the very ripe stage.
I have been canning peaches for the past two years following the “hot pack method” we found on various websites. However, our quart jars consistently looked like the sample you show on this site as processed by the “cold pack method” with 1/4 of the jar being syrup and the peach slices floating at the top.
Discovering you site this weekend, we processed 11 jars following your processing instructions for a very light syrup and tightly packing the peaches into the quart jars. The result was much better with about 1 inch of syrup at the bottom of each jar.
Not sure why my peach slices enjoy floating so I am interested in your comments on what I might do differently.
Thanks
This is the best site I’ve found in searching for days. I can’t ever seem to get the timing right for everything. I had a 30lb box of peaches and did half of them-which should have been enough for 7QTS. It barley made 5.5. I went ahead and followed all the steps as best as I could. The first jar I pulled out of the crater bath was spitting! I just left it and got the others. I did tomatoes last weekend. Both times there is a bunch of liquid on the bottom, about 2-3”. What am I doing wrong? I’ve got 2 dozen corn and oh! Too much stuff!! I just got a pressure cooker but I’m scared if it. Silly, I know.
This is the best site I’ve found in searching for days. I can’t ever seem to get the timing right for everything. I had a 30lb box of peaches and did half of them-which should have been enough for 7QTS. It barley made 5.5. I went ahead and followed all the steps as best as I could. The first jar I pulled out of the crater bath was spitting! I just left it and got the others. I did tomatoes last weekend. Both times there is a bunch of liquid on the bottom, about 2-3”. What am I doing wrong? I’ve got 2 dozen corn and oh! Too much stuff!! I just got a pressure cooker but I’m scared if it. Silly, I know.
Jars “spitting” is called siphoning, and there are a lot of potential reasons for it. There’s a good article on that here: https://www.healthycanning.com/loss-of-liquid-during-home-canning/
For the liquid at the bottom, meaning your fruit is floating, that’s often the result of not packing your jars tight enough or raw packing. There will always be some space at the bottom, as fruit shrinks during canning, but if it seems excessive try hot pack instead of raw.
AShley;
Forgot to ask;
Wht can I add, at what time, to give peaches a hot ‘kick’. I like spicy.
How about ginger? Yum!
Ashley;
The very first article on peach canning, and I need to go no further.
I’ve never canned, but look forward to. I am limited to grocery store peaches which are very good this year. I have a question about boiling at 6,300 ft. elevation, and a question about the following;
“Top the peaches in the jars with syrup, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and seal with 2 part canning lids.
Process in a water bath canner, 20 minutes for pints and 25 minutes for quarts under 1000 feet in elevation.”
Seal the jars. Well I am familiar with the two-part lids. Are they to be sealed air tight at this stage. I assume since the contained peaches are relatively hot from the ‘Very light Syrup” that nothing will explode. Where does wax come into place. Seems like Grandma had paraffin around.
Can my organic seed-to-mature tomatoes be canned?
THANK YOU VERY MUCH
Paraffin canning is an old technique that’s no longer considered safe (though plenty of people still do it). There’s no paraffin in this recipe.
Processing in a water bath canner means putting the hot jars in a deep pot full of boiling water for the specified time. At higher elevation, it takes longer since water boils at a lower temperature.
Here are the process times at different elevations:
** O to 1,000 Feet Elevation
Hot pack – Pints – 20 Min
Hot Pack – Quarts – 25 Min
Raw Pack – Pints – 25 Min
Raw Pack – Quarts – 30 Min
**1,001 to 3,000 Feet Elevation
Hot pack – Pints – 25 Min
Hot Pack – Quarts – 20 Min
Raw Pack – Pints – 30 Min
Raw Pack – Quarts – 35 Min
**3,001 to 6,000 Feet Elevation
Hot pack – Pints – 30 Min
Hot Pack – Quarts – 35 Min
Raw Pack – Pints – 35 Min
Raw Pack – Quarts – 40 Min
**Above 6,000 Feet Elevation
Hot pack – Pints – 35 Min
Hot Pack – Quarts – 40 Min
Raw Pack – Pints – 40 Min
Raw Pack – Quarts – 45 Min
Ashley;
Are the hot jars sealed? Are the hot jars completely submerged in the boiling water bath?
The hot jars are submerged in the boiling water bath. If you’re not familiar with water bath canning, this primer takes you through everything you need to know: https://practicalselfreliance.com/water-bath-canning-beginners/
Good explanation about home canning of Peaches. I have made and canned peach jam. Now I am going to try just peaches. But did you know that Pennsylvania is mis-spelled? It has two n’s. After William Penn. Probably just a typo!
Thanks for catching the typo!
Do I have to use a canning pot for the water bath? Can I use a regular pot?
A regular pot works fine (that’s what I use), just make sure it’s deep enough. The water level needs to cover the jars by at least an inch, and the water level will rise as you add jars. I use a 5 gallon stock pot, the same one I use for making big batches of pasta sauce or homebrew beer.
I was wondering if I take the quart jars out of the bath and the liquid is bubbling and some dripping off the top, does that mean I did t get a correct seal and are they safe to eat?
So long as you get a seal, that’s fine. There are a lot of potential causes for it, and it’s called sciphoning. Here’s a good article on the subject: https://www.healthycanning.com/loss-of-liquid-during-home-canning/
Thank you very much. Turned out great. I would love to try your peach cobbler recipe.
Thank you very much. Turned out great. I would love to try your peach cobbler recipe.
What do you mean by “remove air” from the jar?. How do you do that?
Sometimes air bubbles get trapped under the peach slices. Poking them a bit will release the bubbles. You’re supposed to do it with a non metal implement, as the metal can heat shock the jar (it’s cold initially, before the hot liquid heats it). I use the handle side of a wooden spoon to de-bubble jars. Anyhow, once the air bubbles come out you’ll likely need to top off the jars a bit since the liquid level will have dropped.
Hi- made your recipe tonight and pressed out all of the air bubbles but after processing them in the canner, there are air bubbles! Argh! What to do?
Did you do the raw pack or hot pack?
I usually peel, slice the peaches and put them in freezer bags with no syrup just Ball Fresh Fruit. They are delicious! I don’t have much freezer room this year so (fingers crossed) I’m going to quarter the peaches again with only Ball Fresh Fruit, put in Ball quart jars and boil. I do not like to put any sugar on them. I hope I’ll be successful! ALSO, I peel my peaches with a vegetable peeler. It works great for me. Once in awhile a too ripe peach is alittle difficult. Still easier than boiling, cooling, peeling. Wish me luck all!
Thank you for the info, very helpful! We bought a flat of peaches at a farm stand, and we canned half which ended up being 3 full pints and then used the other half of the flat for peach cobbler. Yum!
Thank you for the info, very helpful! We bought a flat of peaches at a farm stand, and we canned half which ended up being 3 full pints and then used the other half of the flat for peach cobbler. Yum!
Wonderful!
Thanks for all the detailed steps. This will be my 1st try at canning, so wish me luck! Lol.
Wonderful, I hope it turns out for you!
Think I have a problem. My peach tree finally produced. So I picked a bunch. And canned them. I am a bit familiar with canning and I know the lids should ping when they seal. I did water bath them for 25 minutes. What I have found is that one day the lids are sunk in like they sealed. Then the next hour or day the lid is not sunk in. Can you go back with new lids and water bath them again for another 25 minutes?
This is my first time canning and not watching someone else do it.
The lids should go down and stay down. If they’re coming back up at all after “pinging” then they’re not sealed. I believe you can re-can peaches if you process them again within a day or to of the unsealed jar and keep them in the fridge in the meantime. If you find an unsealed jar in the pantry and have no idea how long it’s been unsealed then you shouldn’t eat it (which may well be obvious, since it likely will get fuzzy/moldy/nasty anyway.
Generally, you leave the jars on the counter for 24 hours and then check the seals. If they’re sealed, I put them away, unsealed I put them in the fridge. I’ve never had more than 1 unsealed jar in a batch, so I’ve never had to go through the re-canning process. If I had a whole batch that didn’t seal, I’d pour them all back into a big pot, bring the whole thing to a boil and then re-load into clean jars and process in a water bath canner again. (I’ve also never had a jar that “pinged” and then unsealed later, though I’ve heard others have had this problem. I believe it comes from not having clean rims on the jars. If sugar syrup is on the rim of the jar, the jar may appear to seal, but then can pop open and spoil. At least that’s my best guess as to the cause of this problem. Try making sure you wipe the rims clean with a damp towel before putting on the lids.)
That’s my best guess, and I hope everything works out for you!
I love how easy you keep your answers! Thank you!
Hi Ashley, just wondering if I can use water diluted apple juice (instead of full strength apple juice) as my very light syrup? Wondering, also, what health difference, if any, comes with using juice instead of sugar water, if you know?
Yes, you can dilute the juice for canning liquid (or even can in plain water if you want). The health difference may or may not exist really. Some people believe that fruit juice is a more natural sugar than cane sugar, but that’s debatable. Once is fructose, the other glucose, which also might make a difference since some people have reactions to one type or the other (rare in any case). It’s all a matter of personal preference, but I just use cane sugar because it doesn’t flavor the peaches in any way, whereas apple juice will make them taste slightly apply-y.
Is it okay to add a vanilla bean and cardamon pod seed to this to make Niagara peaches?
I’d suggest infusing those into the syrup and then removing as both can be intense if left in the jar for too long (especially the cardamom, which can get bitter in canning). That said, to the best of my knowledge it’s fine to can peaches with some added spices left in the jars (not strained out), so it’s your choice on that.
I’ve been slow to the idea of canning as it’s 2 of us, but, the way things are going, I thought I’d learn. I love the simplicity of your method. I’ve read recipe after recipe, and I noticed you didn’t mention keeping the jars warm to avoid cracking. Or did I miss it? Thanks so much! I’m going to use your method!
It’s definitely a good idea to keep the jars warm. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t. You certainly take a chance on the jars cracking if you don’t but I have done it many times without warming them and had success that way as well.
What happens after everything you think you did right and one of your jar is sealed but the peaches start to drop?