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Peach Marmalade
Allow three-quarters of a pound of sugar to a pound of fruit; boil the pits until the water is well flavored; peel and quarter the peaches, and add to the water boiling, half an hour before adding the sugar; stir constantly; boil an hour after adding the sugar.
A plain nineteenth-century marmalade in the old English sense: fruit boiled down with sugar to a thick, spreadable mass, with no pectin, no thermometer and no processing instructions. Two things need attention before you start, the pit infusion and the hour of boiling.
- The pit step is optional, and worth skippingPeach kernels inside the stones contain amygdalin, which yields hydrogen cyanide when the kernel tissue is broken. Whole, uncracked pits give up relatively little, though note that the recipe asks you to boil them until the water is well flavoured rather than briefly. The flavour gained is a faint almond note you can get more safely from a few drops of almond extract. Never crack the pits to use the kernels.
- Weigh, do not measureThree-quarters of a pound of sugar to a pound of prepared fruit is a ratio, not a quantity. Four pounds of peeled, quartered peaches to three pounds of sugar is a manageable batch and fills several half-pint jars.
- PeelingDip the peaches in boiling water for 30 to 60 seconds, then into cold water; the skins slip off. The recipe assumes you know this.
- An hour of boiling is too longOn a modern burner, cook to 220F on a candy thermometer, or until a spoonful set on a chilled saucer wrinkles when pushed. Depending on your pan this may take 25 to 45 minutes, and going the full hour is likely to give a dark, caramelised, stiff conserve.
- Use a wide panEvaporation, not time, is what thickens this. A wide heavy preserving pan or Dutch oven filled no more than a third deep will set far faster and scorch far less than a tall stockpot. Stir constantly means constantly once the sugar is in.
- Sugar level and keepingAt 75 percent sugar to fruit weight this is on the low side for a shelf-stable preserve of the period. There is no pectin here either, so the set comes entirely from reduction and the fruit's own pectin; slightly underripe peaches set better than dead-ripe ones.
- SealingThe book gives no processing instructions. Period practice was generally to pour preserves hot into jars or crocks and cover with paper and wax, and a reader would have supplied a covering method herself. For shelf storage today, follow a current water-bath canning procedure for jams, or simply refrigerate and use within a month.
Marmalade in nineteenth-century American cookbooks still carried its older, broader meaning: any fruit boiled to a pulp with sugar. The word comes from the Portuguese marmelada, a stiff quince paste (from marmelo, quince), long before it narrowed to mean bitter orange preserve. Peaches were a natural candidate, since a good tree gives more fruit in a fortnight than a family can eat and the season is short. The pit infusion belongs to the same tradition that produced ratafia and noyau liqueurs, where the almond-like flavour of stone fruit kernels was prized as a seasoning that came with the fruit; cherry, apricot and peach stones were used this way in custards and preserves. The absence of any sealing instruction is equally of its time: a housewife reading it would have supplied the covering method herself.