I picked a lot of peaches today. After setting some aside for friends, neighbors and for fresh eating, I still have a lot. I would like to freeze them for future eating.
I look up the ways to freeze fresh peaches on the Internet. There are a few. But I would like to find out from you. How do you freeze yours, how long they can be kept in a freezer, any tips? Thank you
Without lemon juice? No turning brown?
I can them in a very light syrup, one cup of sugar to four cups water. Just blanch, half them or slice them, and boil quart jars for 30 minutes. Iāve frozen them before, but much prefer to open a quart jar and ādrinkā them.
I heard from many about freezing peaches so wife and I tried it a few years ago. Never again. I prefer to can them up. The frozen ones were ok if thawed and eaten same day. If we had any left, the next day they were mush.
We froze them in a plastic containers and covered them with medium syrup solution. Any peach above the syrup was black when we thawed them out.
Yes. Only defrost what youāll use the same day and donāt plan on eating them singularly. One the other hand their a delicious addition to foods.
I suggest you try drying. I tried both freezing and drying, and in MHO drying wins.
Fabulous on road trips!
I freeze a lot of nectarine slices and any peaches I bother with by simply slicing them on a non-onion flavored cutting board, placing them on a shallow pan and freezing them. Once they are frozen solid I pry them off with a metal spatula after heating the bottom of the pan on the stove for a few moments and scoop them into plastic freezer bags. Break them up with the spatula as needed- at least enough so they fit snugly in the bag. Then you can remove whatever you need in any quantity needed. I use them mostly on waffles and in oatmeal, but they can be used in pies with or in ice cream and most other culinary purposes. I donāt have a problem with oxidizing with peaches, nects and plums- but cots are another issue and work better cooked as a sauce in individual bags. My freezer is full of all the blueberries and nectarines I need until I hopefully have fruit again next summer.
A key for good texture is using firm-ripe fruit.
I have never had the good fortune of freezing peach. But I freeze a lot of veggies and with them what I normally do is cut it all up and then put everything on a tray and freeze for 5 minutes. Then I put them in a zip lock bag and freeze. Since everything was frozen as individual pieces, they donāt stick to each other. That way you can just take out the amount you need for each meal, even though itās all in one large bag. No need to make meal size bags.
I started typing my reply few hours ago and just finished it. I pretty much do the same thing as you doā¦
Thank you, everyone. The info is helpful. I probably will go with freezing the way Alan and Susu suggested, Hubby said canning is too much work (he does most of the cooking. I supervise). We donāt have a dehydrator. Freezing seems most convenient.
Thanks again for your input,
I blanch mine for three minutes in boiling water, remove the skin and all blemishes, cut in half, remove pit, let cool to room temperature then put in really good freezer bags and they will last about four months before frost starts creeping into the bag. If you see that use the peaches immediately or else the frost will change the taste of the peach, worse than that, make it bland. Hope this helps.
You can slice them too but use them faster as a larger mass of peach seems to hold up better in our āfrost freeā freezers. I will be making jam this weekend, just for that reason. Frost has started creeping into my raspberries, its time to take them out of the freezer. Thanks goodness for the cooler weather. Nisa, your jam is on the way!!!
Thanks.
May convince hubby to make some jam. Too many too eat. Wish you were near.
Next door!
I dehydrate jerky in our regular electric oven, I just turn it as low as possible and crack the door open just a bit with a metal spatula to let the moisture out. It dehydrates much more than you can in a small counter top dehydrater
Iāve always been led to believe that vegetables need to be cooked (blanched) before freezing but fruit does best when frozen directly and Iāve never experimented to find out what happens if you defy this rule. Recently my sister recommended slow baking peaches before freezing to enhance flavor and sweetness, but I havenāt tried it because it is an additional step doubling the work involved.
However, after years of hearing about it I finally tried grilling a peach and the result was very rewarding just to eat the peach off the grill. Actually, I use indirect charcoal grilling with natural charcoal on one side of my grill and a chicken or solid piece of meat on the other, throwing a bit of green apple wood over the charcoal to flavor the flesh (and covering the grill)- I donāt like smoky flavored vegetables or the idea of smoky fruit so I wait a few minutes before putting these in, after smoke from the green wood subsides.
Anyway, you can also try freezing grilled or baked fruit and see how it compares to doing it straight, or see if Mrās Gs suggestion of blanching makes the fruit better. Generally, simply freezing on trays will likely remain my go-to method. Too much to do when you run your own small business as both my wife and I do and using this method the fruit pretty much comes out as it went in- at least for the use I described. Firm-ripe nectarines even hold a lot of their texture after thaw.
I tried grilled peaches this year after hearing about it here. They were delicious. Like eat peach syrup!!! My daughter has been requesting them almost every night.
I have tried freezing peaches blanched and unblanched and I canāt tell a difference. I only blanch on somewhat firm ripe peaches just to make it easier to skin. I tend to make smoothies for mine as I have a lot of other fruit to use too.
In the winter really my favorite fruit is black currants, the flavor is so unique and processes so well. Some only eat fruit fresh and well are missing out on this fruit processed, it is so amazing a flavor, and also mixed you can make some fantastic flavors. I mix most fruits as certain combos just work so well for me.
Like I often spike dull tasting peaches with red currant syrup.
Right now for fresh fruit most of my pluots ripen right now, I have a refrigerator full of them., They last over a month.
I myself like tart fruit and feel it tastes better processed, so tend to keep many berries for the winter. I tend to eat most of my peaches fresh, but do like to freeze the red fleshed types as they have a zip very much like berries.
I used to freeze my peaches in syrup or juice, but I had little uses for the syrup once thawed, so now just freeze them without anything except a little sugar. Very little.