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Last year, I had to thin the fruit on our peach tree to keep the branches from breaking once the fruit matured. Rather than throw away all the quarter- to half-dollar-sized green peaches, I pickled them -- whole -- using a bread & butter recipe. My thought was that they would turn out a bit like pickled olives. The result was not far off, save for the fuzzy skins-- very fuzzy. Like, felt fuzzy. I was hoping that the vinegar in the pickling would change the fuzzy texture; no such luck.

Is there any technique or treatment (saving peeling every last one of them) to tone the fuzzy down?

rumtscho
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jhfrontz
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  • I've never eaten a green peach, but I imagine that the stone inside is probably as soft as the stone of a green cherry. How do you avoid breaking it when eating the peach? – rumtscho Apr 25 '13 at 09:11
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    @rumtscho: Prior to pickling, the woody stone is hard enough to provide some resistance to guide your teeth away (though you can still bite off a bit of a stone if that's your intent). After pickling, it is indeed more of a challenge to avoid biting into/through the pit (the vinegar and cooking both serving to soften the pit, I'm assuming). I've resorted to cutting the flesh away from the pit, sort of like pitting an olive when preparing them for a salad or sauce. It might also be that less mature peaches would have a less woody pit-- I'll try to time things better this year to find out. – jhfrontz Apr 25 '13 at 21:47
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    Wow. +1 for what seems to me to be a very original and efficient idea. Never in a thousand years would I have considered pickling under-developed peaches (not that I like olives, either, but still!). – PoloHoleSet Jul 12 '17 at 14:31

2 Answers2

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I wash mine vigorously with a 3M scrubby pad. There's still some fuzz, but not as much. Those scrubby shower gloves would probably be easier, but maybe less effective.

Dawn
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Blanching should make it very easy to peel the peaches.

Descrip

Video

When I blanch tomatoes, the critical thing is to leave them in the boiling water long enough so that the skin splits and will simply pop off with a little pressure from your hand. Things should work the same way w peaches, and it's not really all that bad of a chore.

Wayfaring Stranger
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    This works great for ripe peaches, but I imagine that it will not work well for green peaches where the fruit tissues are not yet well differentiated. – rumtscho Apr 25 '13 at 09:10
  • I'll give this a try in a month or so (when I expect -- barring a late frost -- another batch of green peaches to play with); however, I suspect @rumtscho is right: this would be like trying to blanch a green olive. – jhfrontz Apr 25 '13 at 21:35
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    Green tomatoes (beyond a certain point) are blanchable. It just takes a little more boiling than for the ripe ones. I think your result will likely depend on exactly how green your green peaches are. – Wayfaring Stranger Apr 25 '13 at 22:22