Vanilla Peach Jam

• Ingre­di­ents:
• 5 cups pit­ted, coarse­ly chopped peaches
• ¹⁄₄ cup lemon juice
• 9 cups sugar
• 1 ¹⁄₂ tsp. cinnamon
• 2 vanil­la beans, 3 inch­es long each
• 1 pouch (3 oz.) liq­uid fruit pectin

Process peach­es until fine­ly chopped. In large stockpot, com­bine peach­es and lemon juice. Stir in sug­ar and cin­na­mon until well blended.

Split vanil­la beans in half length­wise and scrape seeds into mixture.

Stir­ring con­stant­ly, cook over low heat for 4 min­utes. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil.

Stir in liq­uid pectin. Stir­ring con­stant­ly, bring to a rolling boil.

Boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and skim off foam.

Remove vanil­la beans.

Spoon into clean jars; keep refrig­er­at­ed (this recipe is an excel­lent can­di­date for can­ning too).

Makes 10 cups!

Vanilla Like a BOSS!

Vanil­la beans are expensive—you’ll pay around $20 for two of them. You could sub­sti­tute vanil­la extract, but if you’re will­ing to pony up the bucks for the real deal, it will be worth it.

Vanil­la beans don’t look like much; sticky gum­my lit­tle twigs. But they pack a punch! I occa­sion­al­ly make a spiced Christ­mas beer—like this recipe, it calls for two vanil­la beans to infuse 5 gal­lons of beer.

Treat your pricey beans with respect, and they’ll reward you handsomely.

Before you open that expen­sive lit­tle jar, make sure you have fresh­ly-scrubbed hands and a spot­less sharp knife. Do not—repeat not!—wash the beans!

Slit the bean open length­wise (watch your fin­gers!). When you scrape the sticky gunk out, get it all. Don’t leave a sin­gle mol­e­cule on the knife or cut­ting board or your fingers.

Make sure you also drop the pods and stems in, like the recipe says. Fish ’em out once the boil­ing is all done, like with bay leaves.