Peach Compote

To blanch the peaches, fill ? of a large soup pot with water. Bring to a boil. Add peaches for 30 -45 seconds, then remove with slotted spoon. Remove peaches immediately to a large bowl of cold water.

Peel the skin, cut the peaches into quarters and remove pits.

To cook the preserves, place all peeled peaches in a large soup pot and squeeze in juice of 1 lemon. Drizzle well with 2 cups sugar, toss and drizzle again with the remaining 1.5-2 cups so the sugar reaches all the peaches. If peaches are very sweet, you may only need 3½ cups of sugar total. Add more sugar to taste while its cooking.

Let peaches sit at room temp with the sugar for about 30 min -1 hour, or until sugar is dissolved.

Place the pot over the stove uncovered and bring to a light boil, stirring to prevent scorching. Once the whole pot is at a light boil, simmer for 10 minutes and turn off the heat. Let the pot stand uncovered until it is just warm to the touch or reaches room temp.

As soon as it cools, repeat step 3. You will bring it to a boil a total of 5 times. Preserves have plenty of sugar so they won't spoil at room temp if you leave it on the counter overnight. If you want the preserves to have an even thicker consistency, you can boil it 6 times if you wish. (Note: the fifth time you boil, bring it to a boil over a little lower heat and stir a few extra times to prevent scorching. Also, it thickens more as it cools. )

The last time you bring it to a boil you will want to transfer it to sterilized jars while it's boiling hot.

To sterilize the jars wash them and let them dry in the oven at 215 for about 20 min or until completely dry. Boil the lids 5 min.

Transfer your boiling hot preserves to the jars using a glass measuring cup and a funnel (least messy method) leaving about ¼? space.