Summer Jam Sessions part 2: Peachy Keen

come get some sweet heat

Welcome back you beautiful, hungry people to the second week of our series: Summer Jam Sessions. This week is all about peaches but first let’s get to one of your questions from last week.

So glad you asked Brian, who we will imagine is the well-known musical genius from The Beach Boys. Unlike garbanzo beans and chickpeas, there is some real info behind these different names. Jelly is made with strained fruit juice so you’re never gonna find pieces of fruit in your jelly. It usually contains added pectin so it’s the thickest of all these and our least favorite kind of fruity spread. If you want to learn more about pectin though, Ben Mims had a great piece in the LA Times last week all about it and how to make your own at home. Def worth a read.

Unlike jelly, jam and preserves are both made with chunks of fruit and sugar. Jam tends to be made from mashed fruit or smaller cut pieces where preserves are the chunkier of the two. But no one is gonna freak out if you use these terms interchangeably since the difference is super fucking small. Marmalades are just like jam but are made from citrus. Fruit spreads are made with only fruit, no sugar. Sometimes fruit juice is added for extra sweetness, but the fruit spreads are rarely very sweet and are often the go-to option for people watching the sugar intake. And lastly, we’ve got fruit butters. These guys are made from pureed fruit, aren’t super sweet, and are cooked over a low heat for a couple hours to really thicken up. Apple butter is the best, most well-known example of these. But it’s summer so put your apple dreams off for a couple more months and let’s grab some peaches.

classic peach problem

Peach jam and pie can often get a bad rap because people love to pair super sweet peaches with tons of sugar and the result is cloying and hard to stomach. We can’t stand most store-bought peach stuff for that exact reason. It all just tastes so syrupy and noxiously sweet. So this week we’re bringing the 🔥sweet heat🔥. 

Our Peach Pepper Jam is an addictive blend of all the sweetness of in-season peaches with a lil' heat from sun-ripened Fresno peppers. The end result is perfect slathered over cornbread, on crackers with a little Kite Hill ricotta, or mixed into store-bought BBQ sauce to really make that shit sing. No matter what you do with it you’ll be glad you made it.

Peach Pepper Jam

Makes a little shy of 3 pints

2 pounds chopped peaches, about 6 cups or 4 large peaches*

1 ½ pounds cane sugar or about 3 cups

Juice from 1 lemon

2 Fresno peppers, seeded and diced

Dump the peaches and sugar into a large stock pot and mix them up. Let this sit on the stove for about 30 minutes to let the peaches start releasing all their juice. Stick a small plate into your freezer for later. Once you see some juice in the peach pot, add the lemon juice and peppers and turn on the heat to medium.

Get the pot simmering, then turn the heat down to medium low all while keeping a gentle simmer. The pot will foam up a little so stir occasionally and scrap down the sides to keep any sugary stuff from burning. After a little while, the foam should start to die down and the jam will start to thicken up, about 20-30 minutes. When you think it’s looking good, put a small amount on that plate in the freezer we told you about earlier. If it sets without running all over the place, you’re good to go.

Let the jam cool for a couple minutes then pour it into your prepared jars. Let these cool on the counter, lids on, and set them in the fridge once the sides aren’t hot to the touch. Store them in the fridge and they should last a few months. Throw them out at the first site of mold though, k?

*Due to laziness, we keep the skin on. It melts into the jam, adds a little extra pectin and color. But if you hate it or have free time, skinning the peaches is totally fine.

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Thanks for joining us again this week as we jam out. Any burning fruit or jam questions? Leave them below and we’ll be back next week with another delicious small batch of sweetness for your weekend.