How to Freeze Peaches with Fruit Fresh?

We like to pick up a 20-lb box of fresh peaches from our go-to neighborhood fruit shop before we head out to camp each summer. Before deciding to freeze the remaining fruit, we made some peach jam and excellent peach milkshakes. We carried them home to research the proper way to freeze peaches.

By freezing them, you can have peaches all winter long to use in smoothies and your favorite sweets. It’s incredibly simple to freeze peaches. You can quickly prepare some more peaches for freezing if you need to do something with them quickly.

Peaches

What are Peaches?

In the warmer temperate zones of both the Northern and Southern hemispheres, the peach, or Prunus persica, is a fruit tree belonging to the rose family (Rosaceae). Peaches are frequently consumed fresh and made into pies and cobblers; in many areas, canned peaches are a common food item. Vitamin A content is very high in cultivars with yellow flesh.

A single ovary gives rise to a peach fruit, which ripens into a soft, juicy exterior that makes up the fruit’s edible portion and a hard inner known as the stone or pit that houses the seed (s). Usually, only one of the two ovules in the ovary is fertilized and turns into a seed. This frequently causes the fruit’s halves to differ somewhat in size.

How to Freeze Peached with Fruit Fresh?

Requirement:

  • Peaches
  • Plastic freezer bags for peaches
  • A 2-qt measuring cup with fresh fruit

Peaches can be frozen in various ways, but the simplest method is to pack them into freezer containers.

One quart-size freezer jar can hold four cups of peaches. One medium peach contains roughly one cup.

Pick ripe, firm peaches that haven’t started to rot or turn brown.

Getting Peaches Ready for Freeze

Peaches should be peeled, pitted, and sliced into 4 cups before being added to the large measuring cup. To avoid browning, slice only enough to place into one freezer container at a time.

You might be curious if peaches can be frozen without being peeled. Since it is so simple to peel the peels with this simple approach, I don’t see any purpose in keeping them on.

Put the peaches in a dish of hot water for at least 30 seconds before placing them in a bowl of freezing water to help with easier peeling. If the peaches are ripe, the skins should easily come off.

Freezing Peaches with Fresh Fruit

Add one tablespoon of Fruit Fresh to the peaches after they have been cooked. Fruit Fresh is a powder that keeps peaches from becoming brown and maintains their color. It is available at your neighborhood grocery shop with the canning materials, or you can get it from Amazon online.com.

After filling your freezer container, cap it off with the lid. Include a date and the contents on the container’s label. This method of freezing peaches allows for storage for up to six months in the freezer.

How to Peel Peaches for Freezing?

Peeling peaches is simple if you follow the steps below:

Each Peach should have its Bottom Scored

While the water is coming to a boil, make a small “x” in the skin at the base of each peach. Since you are only removing the skin, keep the cuts shallow. A sizable dish of ice water on hand will allow you to cool the peaches quickly after giving them a hot bath.

Rinse the Peaches

Peaches’ skin becomes much more accessible to peel after being blanched. Peach peels can slide off rather than being sliced away because the heat helps break the skin from the fruit.

Ascertain that the peaches are completely submerged in the boiling water. Blanche for forty seconds. To help the skin loosen and enhance the flavor, let the peaches in hot water for a little bit longer if they are somewhat underripe.

Add the Peaches to an Ice Bath

A slotted spoon can transfer the blanched peaches to the chilly water. Permit them to cool for a minute. The peaches should be drained and dried with a cloth.

Peaches’ Skins to Remove

You can either pluck and remove the peach’s peel with your fingers or a paring knife. After blanching, the peel does fall off quite easily.

Peeled Peach After peeling, this peach is prepared for pitting and slicing.

Peeled peaches taste great on their own, in cereal bowls or fruit salads, with ice cream or whipped cream, over thick Greek-style yogurt, or all by themselves.

How to Store Different Kinds of Peaches?

Fully Ripe peaches

Put them in the refrigerator if the peaches on hand are ripe but you aren’t ready to eat them. Their off-tree ripening abilities will be significantly slowed down by the cold. Check chilled peaches periodically since the cold air in the refrigerator dehydrates them; wrinkled skin is a sign of both over-ripeness and drying. (Essentially, a fully ripe peach should be consumed as soon as possible.)

Peaches that aren’t Quite Ready to Eat

Keep your peaches on the kitchen counter, though, if you’d prefer them to be a little softer and more fragrant. To speed up the process even more, you can place them in a small area of sunlight (watch out that it doesn’t become too hot there).

Firm Peaches

Put peaches in a paper bag if they are still firm, and you want to hasten the ripening process; the bag will trap the ethylene gas the peaches naturally emit and hasten the process.

What can I Substitute for Fruit Fresh at the Time of Freezing Peaches?

Here are some of the best substitutes for fresh fruit:

  1. Lemon juice
  2. Lime juice
  3. Orange juice
  4. Grapefruit juice
  5. Cranberry juice
  6. Strawberry juice
  7. Raspberry juice
  8. Blueberry juice
  9. Cherry juice
  10. Blackberry juice

These are all great options for substituting fresh fruit in your recipes. Just remember to adjust the other ingredients to account for the different levels of sweetness or tartness.

Slice the fruit into a paste composed of water, and ground chili pepper, which will keep from turning brown. To stop fruit from oxidizing, it should be brined in water. Fruit Fresh has a variety of ingredients, including dextrose, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), citric acid, and silicon dioxide. Dextrose, silicon dioxide, and citric acid (vitamin C) are all components in Fruit Fresh. It can be replaced with citric acid to reduce the fruit’s acidity (and thus the pH). When chopped, fresh fruit has a high vitamin C content, which lessens or eliminates the effects of fruit aging. Dextrose, ascorbic acid, citric acid, silicon dioxide, and vitamin C are the components of Fruit Fresh.

What is the Difference Between Freestone and Clingstone Peaches?

There are two general categories of peaches: freestone and clingstone. Freestone describes peaches with a pit that can be removed easily because the flesh is not linked to it. Freestone peaches are the easiest to peel and slice, making them ideal for cooking, baking, and eating straight out of hand.

Contrarily, clingstone refers to fruit with flesh still clinging to the pit, making them more challenging to prepare. The greatest use for them is to consume them raw. Clingstone peaches are often only used for commercial purposes, like making canned peaches. Most peaches sold in grocery stores and farmers’ markets are freestone, but you may always ask your farmer.

What to Look for in a Bad Peach?

Remove peaches that:

Rotting or having mold. Peaches that are damaged or left at room temperature for too long frequently rot. If the affected area is small, you can probably cut it off; if it is larger, throw out the entire fruit.

Are you gooey, soft, or oozing? The fruit is doomed if it becomes so soft in a gross way or becomes so soft that simply grabbing it leaves an impression.

A musty odor If there is a musty or “funny” smell coming from the whole bunch and it is unclear which one is bad, err on the side of caution and throw them all away.

Brown on the inside. Stone fruits are known to experience internal collapse that (at first) doesn’t manifest any external symptoms. Toss the peach if you open it and find that most of the flesh is brown or transparent. You can most likely omit a few minor adjustments and consume the remaining food.

The peaches should be disposed of if you discover anything strange about them. Safer to be safe than sorry.

What are the Health Benefits of Consuming Peaches?

Peaches Encourage Recovery

Don’t let a peach’s diminutive size and delicate skin deceive you. One medium peach contains 11% of the recommended amount of vitamin C. This substance keeps your immune system healthy and aids in wound healing. Additionally, it aids in eliminating “free radicals,” substances connected to cancer since they can harm your cells.

Improve your Vision

Beta-carotene, an antioxidant, is responsible for the lovely golden-orange hue of peaches. Your body converts it into vitamin A after you eat it, which is essential for good vision. Additionally, it keeps other components of your body functioning properly, including your immune system.

Ensure that Digestion is Efficient

You can get up to 6% to 9% of the daily recommended fiber from one medium peach. Consuming meals high in fiber can help you avoid diabetes, heart disease, and colorectal cancer. But getting enough fiber might help avoid constipation, which is the benefit you might experience the most in the restroom.

Aid in Maintaining a Healthy Weight

Peaches contain less than 60 calories and no sodium, cholesterol, or saturated fat. And a peach has more than 85% water. Additionally, fiber-rich foods are more filling. It takes longer for you to feel hungry after eating them.

Reference: Peach (Prunus Persica)—Morphology, Taxonomy, Composition, and Health Benefits

Peaches, a member of the prunus genus and family Rosaceae, are typically favored for their unusual flavor and vivid color. The fruit is deficient in nutrition, though. Peaches are rich in carotenoids, particularly -carotene, -carotene, and -cryptoxanthin, which are precursors to vitamin A, but they are also poor in proteins and fat. However, it has significant amounts of fiber, vitamin C, and vitamin E. Consuming peaches has good effects on health since they contain a variety of medicinally significant substances, including antioxidants, polyphenolics, and carotenoids. Peach consumption has also been linked to several therapeutic outcomes, including anti-diabetic, anti-cardiovascular, and chemopreventive effects.

Conclusion

During peach season, it’s important to know how to prevent peaches from turning brown when thawed. While brown fruit may not be pretty, it’s still nutritious and safe to eat. Using an acidic fruit or fruit juice is one way to prevent browning. An acidic fruit will inactivate an enzyme that creates a brown pigment called quinones. If the peaches are acidic enough, they will not turn brown when thawed.

Citrus juice is another great way to prevent peaches from turning brown. You can add citrus juice to your recipe or sugar syrup to soak the fruit in. If you don’t like the taste of citrus, you can substitute it with corn syrup or honey. You can also make sugar syrup by mixing hot water and sugar. The sugar syrup can be chilled before you use it.