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I'm making peach butter. The recipe I have uses the skin on the peaches (you put the peaches in a blender, put them in the slow cooker with sugar and spices, then use an immersion blender at the end to blend it all again). Unfortunately the peaches I got are clingstone. And they are small (like tangerines maybe), but the flavor is really good. If I just roughly chop the peaches and throw them into the slow cooker (pits and all), will the peaches eventually cook away from the pits, making it easy to remove them? Or will cooking the pits give off a yucky (bitter) flavor and taint the peach butter? Or is there a super simple way of removing the pits in clingstone peaches? Thanks. :)

Update 20 May: I forgot to mention that the peaches were about the size of plums. Of course a little more challenging. I ended up cutting chunks off with a paring knife and was able to get pretty close to the pit. Of course it was really messy, especially with the much riper ones! All the peaches have been blended and are in the crock pot slowly turning into peach butter! Next time I ask someone else to get me a ton of peaches, I'll make sure to specify freestone! :D

Update 21 May: I came home to a disgusting smell and mess in my slow cooker yesterday. I guess the temperature was too hot (it was on low) and it all burned into a horrible mess. I only had three ingredients in the slow cooker. $40 worth of peaches, 2 1/2 cups brown sugar, and 1/4 cup homemade vanilla extract (bourbon and vanilla pods). It was on for five hours overnight and looked great in the morning but it was still very thin (in fact it seemed thinner than the night before), so I left it on low while I went to work. I was gone eight hours and came home to a gross looking and smelling mess. Unfortunately I don't seem to be able to attach a picture. :(

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  • I've used a grapefruit spoon before ... not sure how much trouble that'd be with smaller ones, though.
    – Joe
    May 19, 2015 at 14:07
  • Joe, how much fruit gets left behind when you use a grapefruit spoon? Obviously, I want to use as much of the peach as possible.
    – Brooke
    May 19, 2015 at 18:22
  • more than if they were freestone. I just find it's a useful shape to scoop around the pit, and the edges have the serations to help if you have to cut through a peach that's still a bit firm. Although, reading up on clingstone vs. freestone, I think it's possible that I was just dealing with less ripe freestone, as I'm typically able to halve the peaches without too much difficulty. (bits of the pit might stick to one side that needs to be cleaned up, but 95+% of the time, I can get 'em to seperate)
    – Joe
    May 19, 2015 at 20:14
  • Sorry, still no picture. (and I forgot to mention that for the < 5% case, I can typically make a second slice and extract a quarter (sometimes prying it out, if it's still firm), then I take the grapefruit spoon to it). ps. that sucks. I wish there were 'smart' slow cookers that took a temperature, even if it weren't of sous-vide accuracy & precision rather than just 'low' and 'high'
    – Joe
    May 21, 2015 at 15:37
  • @Joe, between the really slow computer I'm using at work and Stack Exchange saying they don't allow framing on pictures, I'm having a hell of a time. I don't have a frame or framing on the picture, so I'm not sure what it's talking about. It says to click if I want them to remove the frame so I click then it gives me an error. :(
    – Brooke
    May 21, 2015 at 18:12

3 Answers 3

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You may try a mango pit remover. Slide the peach up as far towards the small size as possible. This is just a thought, I have not tried it.

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Cut the peaches all the way around following the cleavage. Twist the fruit apart, then carefully trim the pit out of the half that held on to it with a paring knife.

If you were making slices for a presentation, then cut all the slices down to the pit. The first slice will need to be removed by rocking the knife back and forth across the pit to get it out, but the rest of the slices can be either snapped out or pared out if the fruit isn't coming free very well.

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    With a real clingstone peach, there is no "half that held onto it", it is "the 70% peach still sticking to the stone on each side" as opposed to the small rag which came off into your hand.
    – rumtscho ♦
    May 20, 2015 at 14:46
  • Although some fruit will be left behind its not all that much, and since the OP is making butter with it, just trim the meat off the pit. Although it might not be as clean, the twist method works for for cling fruit too. She's making a butter, not slices for presentation. I edited my answer to include making nice slices for presentation.
    – Escoce
    May 20, 2015 at 15:01
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    The stones seem to have an "equator" where they can be split with a very sharp knife (so you get two halves with spoon access) but that is murder on said knife :) What could help is quartering or eighting leaving the quarters/eights attached, then sacrificing one unclean quarter/eight (eat it straight if there is no other use) for paring knife access for cutting the rest off the stone.
    – rackandboneman
    Nov 15, 2016 at 10:03
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I have a small handheld thing that looks like a spoon with sharp sides and a wooden handle that works great for clingstone peaches.

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