How to Cut a Peach with Step-by-Step Instructions

A good peach cobbler, a peach pie, a peach salad, or even a peach sangria need cut, sliced, or diced peaches.

The only problem with cutting a peach is getting past the stone at the center of the fruit. In this article, we show you how to cut a peach easily, without struggling with the pit, so that you can use peaches for any recipe.

Understanding the two types of peach pits

There are two types of peach pits, and they vary in how difficult they are to remove:

• Freestone peaches: As the name indicates, the stone or the pit in the peach comes out easily. Most grocery stores stock freestone peaches.
• Clingstone peaches: The stone in this variety is difficult to remove, and it usually clings to the fruit. You would typically have to cut the stone away from the fruit. These types of peaches are often used for canned products.

How to cut a peach

You can cut peaches into chunks, slices, cubes, halves, or quarters—peeled or unpeeled. It really depends on what you are making out of the peaches.

There are two methods of cutting a peach:

Method 1: Keep the peel

Cutting an unpeeled peach is the easiest method for slicing a peach. You can quickly cut the fruit with little fuss. Plus, consuming the skin also gives your body an extra boost with the added fiber and antioxidants in the skin.

Follow these steps for slicing an unpeeled peach:

1. Wash the peach thoroughly to remove bacteria and other debris that may sit on the fuzzy skin of the peach.
2. Find the natural indent on the peach and starting at the stem cutting the peach along the center, back to the stem.
3. Continue to cut around the peach till you have cut the peach in half.
4. Hold each half of the fruit and gently twist in the opposite direction to separate the two. When the peach is ripe, the two halves will separate easily.
5. One side of the peach will have the pit lodged in it. Simply remove the pit with your fingers. If the peach is unripe, then you might have to use the tip of the knife as a lever to dislodge it.
6. For a clingstone peach, use a spoon to dig out the stone or using small sawing motions with the tip of a knife to cut around the stone.
7. Place the peach halves on a cutting board, cut side down, and cut into slices or wedges. You can even cut into cubes.

Method 2: Remove the peel

There are two ways to remove the peel. If the peach is not too ripe, you can simply use a vegetable peeler to remove the skin. For a ripe peach, you can blanch the peach, which helps get rid of the skin easily.

To blanch the peach, score the skin on the top and place the peach in boiling water for 45 seconds. Remove the peach and plunge it into ice water, which stops the fruit from cooking further. Use a small paring knife to peel the skin off the fruit. Or you can even use your fingers. It should come off easily.

Once you have removed the skin from the peach, follow the steps below to cut the peach:

1. Cut the peach into wedges. Hold the peach firmly on a cutting board and, using a sharp knife cut lengthwise at an angle so that you get wedges. You can cut the flesh away from the pit to remove it.
2. If you want cubes, then dice each wedge into 1/3 to 1/4  inch cubes or as desired.

How to cut a clingstone peach

While the above methods can be used for both types of peaches, they are best on freestone peaches as the stone comes off easily. Here is another method to cut clingstone peaches:

1. After washing the peach, cut around the peach, starting and ending at the stem.
2. Make another circular cut around the peach as if cutting a pie into equivalent slices. Continue making circular cuts till you have approximately eight sections.
3. Use a paring knife cut down around the stone, starting from the stem towards the bottom of the peach.
4. Once the flesh is cut around the stone, you will have eight slices of peach.

How to cut a peach in half for grilling

Serve up some delicious grilled peaches (or any other fruit like pineapple or nectarine) with some BBQ chicken, in a summer salad, or with a scoop of ice cream. It's perfect for warm summer days!

Grilling also enhances the natural sweetness of a peach that is slightly unripe.

To cut a peach for grilling:

1. Pick peaches that are slightly unripe so that they are just firm enough to hold up during grilling.
2. Cut the peach in half as shown in the above methods, following the natural seam of the fruits from stem back to the stem. Cut all the way to the pit.
3. Using both hands, twist in opposite directions to get two halves with a pit in one of them.
4. Scoop the pit from the center using a melon baller, a cookie scoop, or a spoon. Now your peaches are ready to grill, placing the cut side of the fruit on the grill.

How to stop cut peaches from browning

Peaches oxidize and turn brown once they are cut. To avoid this, squeeze some lemon or orange juice on the peaches. The vitamin C in the juice will stall the oxidation process.

How to store cut peaches

Store cut peaches in the fridge for 2-3 days. Wrap the peaches before putting them in the fridge.

You can even freeze the peaches. Just cut the peaches and squeeze them with lemon juice before storing them in freezer-safe containers. They should last for a year in the freezer.

Serve up your cut peaches

Now that you know how to cut and slice peaches, you can serve them up in so many different mouth-watering ways. Why not buy some peaches today and start creating!