Peach Preserves vs Peaches in a Light Syrup

Inquiring minds wanted to know. Well that might be an overstatement so let me rephrase. An inquiring mind wanted to know and that mind was me! What did I want to know, you ask? It’s simple. After years of putting up peaches in a light syrup to carry me through the winter, I wondered if there was a recipe out there that could top my current ‘go to’ recipe for peaches. It wasn’t that I was tired of the favourite peaches. It’s not like I was going to cheat on them so stop judging me. I was just curious…and I had a bushel of peaches fresh from the farmer’s market staring up at me from their wooden box.

I scoured some preserving cook books, checked out some of my favourite blogs and shortlisted it to three different recipes, made all 3 and personally chose one that was different enough but delicious enough to be a contender for my taste testers to put through the paces.

But before I get into the results let me tell you a bit about each recipe. The Peaches in a Light Syrup are quite simply peach slices in a very light sugar syrup. When you open the jar you get the fresh sweet smell of natural peaches. The colour is light and clear and the flavour is pure peach. The Preserved Peaches are different in that you let the peach slices macerate before you preserve them so the peach slices and the sugar get all juicy together. The addition of pectin to this recipe makes the syrup slightly thicker and to be honest there is just simply more sugar. The colour is bold and rich and the flavour is deep and rich but not as ‘peachy’. NOTE: I did not include the cinnamon or the almond extract as I wanted the peach flavour to stand on it's own.

photo credit: Nancy Lismer

I delivered a jar of both to each taste tester alongside a little questionnaire. Now not all of the results are in but there were some clear lines in the results that I will share with you now and they seemed to revolve around sweetness. If you like a sweeter product, the Preserved Peached are for you. The comments listed in the box below are highlights from some of the taste testers. Check it out.

	Preserved Peaches	Peaches Preserved in Syrup
Texture	LOVED the texture, thick, rich and syrupy. Because of the thickness the flavour lingered longer. It flirted on the palette	Peaches were still nice and firm so they didn’t fall apart
Rating	If you like sweet – that average rating came in between 8.5 and 9	For those taste testers who like a product that is less sugar-y the peaches in light syrup rocked a score of 10
Sweetness	9.5 – 10 (by those who liked and disliked the sweetness level)	3 - 6.5
Uses	All parties seemed to agree that this preserve would be great on ice cream or served as a desert. A suggestion came through that you could drizzle the juice on a pork chop and serve the peaches on the side.	Excellent for breakfast with yogourt or granola. Or as a key ingredient in a cocktail with sparkling wine
What would you tell someone about this product	The colour is gorgeous. Has a wonderful smoothness from a flavour and texture perspective. The syrup alone is so good and then you bite into the peach and the flavours just explode	It’s like a taste of summer in a jar.

 Taste testers - are you ready for your next delivery?

Preserved Peaches vs Peaches in light syrup

I was kind of panicking last week when I realized that it was mid August and I still had not canned my yearly stash of peaches. A couple of months ago I opened my last jar of peaches that I had put away this time last year and there was no way I was going to go a full year without a steady supply.

I went out and bought fresh Ontario peaches, laid them out on my table in the basement and sat down to peruse some recipes to decide what I would do with them this year.

I have my 'go to' recipe of peaches in a light syrup that I make every year. It is tried and true, but surely there are other delicious things to do with peaches besides this and jam.

I came across a recipe for Preserved Peaches and the fact that it contained pectin caused me to pause and think about what it might taste like. I decided I needed to find out. Over the next couple of days the kitchen was a flurry of activity as I blanched, peeled, sliced and preserved peaches. I now have several cases of both recipes in my cool room and in a couple of weeks time once the flavours have settled I will be giving each of the amazing 'taste tester' volunteers a jar of each to try and review. At that point in time, I will share the recipes as well as the reviews from the taste testers.

Taste testers - get your forks or spoons ready. Your first samples will be ready in early September.