Peach Chutney on Tuesday

Tuesday's Peach Harvest

Today, I decided to pick all the ripe peaches because some of them are falling on the ground and getting bruised. 

For brunch, I made pancakes, which I had with a sliced fresh peach and a little pancake syrup:

Brunch: Pancakes with Peaches

After brunch, I began to make peach chutney.  My peach chutney recipe is something I created based on my mango chutney and tomato chutney recipes, which I copied out by hand from one of my mother's old cookbooks, back when I was a teenager.  My mother had told me that she was going to give away her cookbook before we left Sri Lankan and I hurriedly copied some of the recipes that appealed to me.  Later, when my mother found out about it, she regretted giving away her cookbook and, on one of her subsequent visits to Sri Lanka, bought me my own copy of the cookbook.  Except, it was a newer edition and I have found that some of the recipes have been revised.  I prefer the older versions, so I go by what I wrote out!  The only problem I've had with my old recipes is they call for 1/2 bottle of vinegar.  We used the Imperial measurements at the time and I seem to have a vague recollection of 5 bottles to the Imperial gallon.  I am not sure if that is right or not.  Maybe one of my British readers can enlighten me!  Anyway, I have been using 1 1/2 cups as the equivalent of 1/2 bottle of vinegar in my chutney recipes for years, now, and it seems to work, but, sometimes, when I am boiling and stirring my chutney until it thickens, I wonder if 1 cup would be better!  LOL.

I've seen various peach chutney recipes online, but, I have never tried them, preferring to use the one based on the old Sri Lankan chutney recipes.

Anyway, my peach chutney recipe is:
1 lb. peaches
1 lb. sugar
1 1/2 cups vinegar
1 oz. dry chilies
1 oz mustard seeds
1/2 oz. garlic
1/2 oz. green ginger
1 tsp. salt

Directions:  Peel, pit, and cut the peaches.  I decided to make a batch of chutney with 4 lbs. peaches:
 

4 lbs. Prepared Peaches

I actually had to peel, pit, and cut 5 lbs. of peaches to get 4 lbs. of prepared fruit.

Grind the dry chilies, mustard seeds, garlic, and ginger with some of the vinegar:

The Ground Spices

Because my recipe is based on 1 lb. fruit and I decided to process 4 lbs. fruit, I multiplied all the other ingredients, accordingly.  I didn't have enough mustard seeds, however, and used only 2 oz. instead of 4 oz.  And, I didn't have green ginger, so I used preserved ginger. 

Boil the peaches with the rest of the vinegar until soft, then, add the ground spices, salt, and the sugar and, as the original recipe stated, "boil gently till of a good consistency for chutney", while stirring all the time!  Which is approximately 2 hours!

Almost Ready!

You want it to be fairly thick, like a spreadable jam; it thickens a little bit as it cools.

In the meantime I had sterilized some canning jars and when the chutney was of a good consistency, I filled the jars.  It was at this point when my hands began to cramp up, after all that cutting and stirring.  I was happy that the cramping didn't start any earlier!

Peach Chutney

I was able to make 9 half pint jars and two pint sized jars.  Not pictured is a smaller jar that I filled with the leftover chutney and kept in the fridge for my own use.  I normally don't bother to can the chutney I make, but, I went ahead and canned these in a water bath because I want to keep them at least until Christmas.  Now I need to make some labels for them.

Angela wanted to see a photo of the quilted canning jars I bought:

Quilted Canning Jars (1/2 pint/8 oz. size)

Halfway through making the chutney, I took a break for a cup of tea and two more pancakes, as I was feeling hungry.  Dinner was the last of the meal friend S had provided on Friday night. 

Today, I am grateful for:
- My peach harvest!
- A batch of peach chutney
- Old recipes
- A day with mild temperatures (it wasn't too hot to be in the kitchen stirring a pot of chutney for a couple of hours)
- Video chatting with my daughter

Today's joyful activity was making peach chutney!

How was your day?  Have you made peach chutney before?