The Absolute Best Way To Soften Unripe Peaches And Use Them Sooner

Once you know how to select the best peaches, you know the feeling of getting home and wanting to enjoy them right away in all their soft, juicy, sweet goodness. You probably also know the frustration of realizing some peaches in your bag aren't ripe yet. There are of course some ways to speed up the ripening process, like keeping peaches out on your counter where they're exposed to sunlight, or, for faster results still, putting them in a paper bag where they're trapped with the ethylene gas they release while ripening, which further stimulates more ripening action. But even that takes two days. Surely there's something you can do to indulge in peach flavors without the wait, right?

The secret lies in maceration, which basically just means adding sugar to your fruit to soften it. The sugar coaxes out fruit's juices, which start to break down and soften the fruit. And those juices and the sugar mingle, too, creating a more intense and sweeter flavor. This can take too-firm, not-yet-ripe peaches and make them soft, juicy, and sweet in about half an hour. To try it, peel and thinly slice your peaches and toss them with sugar and a pinch of salt. Let them sit in a covered bowl at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes, or for 10 plus another 30 minutes to three hours in the refrigerator. You'll see a syrup forming, meaning your peaches are softening.

What's fun about this process is that it's its own speed-ripening hack, but it's also a recipe. With maceration, unripe peaches transform into soft, sweet treats ready to eat, and the possibilities of flavors and elements you can add from there are endless. You can use these macerated peaches as the base of a salad, for example. After their 10 minutes sitting at room temperature with sugar and before you place them in the fridge, stir in a bit of olive oil with any number of spices and herbs, like black pepper, mint, sage, rosemary, basil, cinnamon, or ginger.

You can also change up the sugar source by swapping out simple granulated sugar for brown sugar, honey, or maple syrup. Add in yet more flavor complexity still with splashes of a liqueur like triple sec or amaretto, or with flavor extracts like vanilla. You can naturally add in more fruits, too — you can macerate an entire fruit salad to marry sweetness, tartness, and bright acidity with juiciness. It's a wonder how quickly unripe peaches can become the soft, sweet star of any dish — and maceration isn't the only way to speed up that journey. You can also use your unripe peaches when you're cooking with them, like when you're making a peach sauce or chutney. When they're ripe, they might be so soft they just turn to mush when heated, so under-ripe peaches are the perfect solution.