Mrs. Phillips' Celebrated Pickle Peaches
Mrs. Phillips
Take a peck of half ripe peaches, put them into a strong pickle of salt and water that will bear an egg. Let them remain in it three days, then take them out. Drain them. Put them into a stone jar and stew them over one ounce mace, one ounce cloves, one ounce grated nutmeg, a handful of sliced green ginger and garlic, two bottles of mustard and cover with best vinegar, cold. They will not be fit for use for three months.
A grand old Southern sweet-spiced pickle — whole peaches brined hard, then steeped for months in spiced vinegar and mustard.
- A “peck” of peachesA peck is 8 dry quarts, roughly 10–12 lb of fruit — a big batch; scale down freely.
- Brine “that will bear an egg”The old test for a strong brine: add salt until a raw egg floats — a heavily salted soak, very roughly ½ cup of salt per quart of water (add more until the egg lifts).
- “Green ginger” and “mustard”Green ginger is fresh ginger root, not dried; “two bottles of mustard” means prepared mustard — about 1–2 cups.
- Patience requiredIt cures in cold vinegar for a full three months before it’s ready — a true keeping pickle.
- Put up safelyUse clean, sterilized jars and store cool; for long keeping, follow a tested modern boiling-water-canning recipe for pickled peaches.
Sweet-and-spicy pickled peaches are a treasured Southern preserve, brought out to partner baked ham, game, and the holiday roast. In the era before refrigeration, spiced vinegar was how you kept summer’s fruit for a winter table, and cooks guarded recipes like this one, credited proudly to “Mrs. Phillips.” The lovely test of a brine strong enough to “bear an egg” runs through old cookbooks of every kind — a cook’s eye standing in for a hydrometer. Spiced pickled peaches still grace Southern tables at Christmas and Thanksgiving.
From page 80 of the 1904 edition.
Original page from the book
