Spiced Peaches

Just canned a batch of peaches yesterday. I substituted brown sugar for the sugar and added 2/3 c brandy to the syrup - yummy! I'm having to fight off my family, they want to open all the jars now, I want to save them at least a few days... And BTW, this is NOT open kettle canning. This is hot-water bath canning, which is endorsed by the USDA for HIGH-acid foods, like this one. Being a bit of a science geek, I measured the pH of the syrup out of curiosity. It was 3.5, well below the 4.6 necessary to kill any botulism spores. Very safe, and I intend to use this recipe as long as we can get fresh peaches!!!

These are awsome. Please read the whole recipe. Southern Chef does call for processing 10 min in a water bath. Very much worth the effort

These are great peaches! I have the touchiest stomach in the world, and I'm still alive to type this. :) I believe the water bath is sufficient. Besides, we ended up eating most of these within a month anyways ;)

I dont think its fair to rate someone 1 star for a recipe that one may find unsafe. I know that my mother and grandmother and great-grandmother, etc used these same recipesfor decades and never got sick or died. I understand that todays canning rules have changed and I follow them but, to rate a RECIPE 1 star b/c of the instructions is unfair. I would recommend a person looking at this going to your states extension website to get the exact time to waterbath in todays time. Dont berate a recipe b/c of the instructins. she may have assumed people looking at this knew what to do. A lot of the recipes today that we would never have if it wasnt for our grandmothers who did everything wrong (but no one that I know of ever got sick or died) would not be around if it wasnt for passing them down. We just have to adapt. It may take a little sleuth work on how to make it safe for tadays times but, it is worth it. My mom tells me all the time I am CRAZY for wasting my time and money boiling jars, water-bathing certain things, etc, but to me, I have that peace of mind that lindapearl is talking about. Just adapt.

Unsafe - This uses the old, outdated 'Open Kettle' method, and poses a serious health risk - particularly in low-acid foods. In this process, the food was packed into sterilized jars and sealed. The theory was that the heat from the food was sufficient to create a vacuum seal in the jar without further processing. Many old recipes passed down through the years, or those found in older cookbooks, use the old-time, outdated canning directions for the open kettle method. This method is now considered unsafe because we now know that without heat processing, bacteria, yeast and mold contamination is common. The growth of these microorganisms, in addition to spoiling the food, often caused lids to later become unsealed. Spoilage was common using the open-kettle method. and resulted in a very real danger of botulism. The new canning instructions state jams and jellies must by processed in a hot water bath canner for a number of minutes based on your altitiude.