DIY Kitchen: peach bbq sauce

Lets just say there’s this place where you can pick all the peaches you can lug home for free (includes 4-hour round trip drive, biting ants, leg-scratchy thistles and the possibility that your child may need to poop in a bag because there are no bathrooms).* And lets say that under the influence of sunny orbs of dangling fruit, you might have picked about 300 pounds.

This is not a problem exactly, but more of a call to arms: to gather peach preservation recipes; to stand in front of your stove for hours, dicing and slicing like you should be reciting lines about Ginsu knives; to give yourself a pass for handing your children a bag of chips for dinner while you wipe sweat from your brow and discover it’s in fact peach juice.

Ninja-mama Kati, carrying 80 pounds in peaches and boy, and who may also have had a bag-pooping child at some point in the day. 

Our friend Jojo picked peaches at this same orchard last week. I talked to him a few days later and he sounded haggard and happy, like someone who just adopted newborn twins. “I finally went to sleep at 7:30 am, after dealing with peaches all night.”

Tip on freezing peaches: slice and freeze on cookie sheets, where they freeze individually instead of all clumping up tossed wet in a bag. Once frozen, slide into bag for easy future shake out.

We’ve done the usual freezing, drying (then doh! left the drying racks full of peaches outside in a rainstorm), peach sauce, peach-vanilla jam, and this year: peach BBQ sauce, which is adapted from this recipe (thanks, Jennifer), but a little funkified with less sugar, more spice.

This sauce appears to be not too spicy for kids. The kids have already devoured it on goat and then elk. In fact, one night after Ginsu-ing all day in the kitchen, I served goat (Thanks, Jojo and Emily!) in peach BBQ sauce and nothing else for dinner (which was a step up from the bag of chips the previous night). I like to marinate the meat in the sauce for 1-2 days (with added olive oil) and then bake the entire hunk’o’meat (with remaining sauce) in the oven. It’s smoky and rich and sweet but not too sweet.

Peach Barbecue Sauce (makes approximately 6 pints)

Ingredients:

22 peaches or 6 pounds, pitted and quartered (don’t bother peeling, the peels will melt away and integrate into the beautiful color of the sauce)

1 cup apple cider vinegar (if you’re not canning this sauce, use 1/2 – 3/4 cup vinegar)

1/2 c molasses

1/2 cup brown sugar (can be omitted or increased with no effect on safety of canning)

juice of 3 limes

3 cloves garlic

1 1/2 cups chopped onions

2 tbsp smoked paprika (unsmoked is fine)

2 tbsp chile powder/cayenne pepper

2 tbsp salt

2 tbsp ginger powder

2 tbsp cumin or coriander (or both!)

Simmer everything down together for a long time, between 1 – 3 hours, with the lid off. The longer you simmer, the more concentrated and flavorful the sauce becomes. Stir frequently. Blend with your favorite blending tool (this is how I fell in love with an immersion blender). Can in water-bath canner, 20 minutes for pints, unless you live at 6512 feet, then 35 minutes.

Adding ginger, cumin, coriander, paprika and cayenne!

Peach barbecue sauce waiting to be paired with an elk (bow-hunting season starts next week). No pressure, honey, roadkill is ok too.

What do you like to do with peaches, dear ones?

* Sorry, directions can not be divulged but please come over for a peach.