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Peach Conserves
Pare the peaches and cut them from the stone in thick slices. Make a syrup, allowing three-quarters pound sugar to each pound fruit. Boil the peaches and put them on dishes to dry. As they dry, roll them in granulated sugar, and pack in jars or boxes.--Mrs. W.P.
This is not a jam despite the name: it is candied peach slices, sugar-dried and packed dry. The whole thing hinges on getting the slices genuinely dry before they go into the jar, because sugar alone will not save fruit that is still damp inside.
- What "conserves" means hereA conserve of this type is fruit preserved whole or in pieces in heavy syrup, then dried and sugared — closer to modern candied fruit or French fruits confits than to the soft, spreadable conserve sold today. Expect chewy, intensely sweet slices, not a preserve for toast.
- The sugar ratioThree-quarters pound sugar to each pound of fruit is roughly 1 3/4 cups sugar per pound of peaches. For the syrup, add water to about half the sugar's weight (a cup or so per pound of sugar) and heat until clear before the fruit goes in.
- "Boil the peaches"The intent is to simmer the slices in the syrup until they turn translucent and the syrup thickens — roughly 10 to 20 minutes for firm slices, longer for thick ones. Hard boiling breaks the slices apart; keep it at a bare simmer and lift them out with a slotted spoon.
- Choose firm fruitFreestone peaches at the just-ripe stage hold their shape; dead-ripe fruit collapses in the syrup. Slices about half an inch thick candy evenly.
- Drying, in practiceAir-drying on dishes would have depended on warm, dry conditions and some protection from insects. An oven set to its lowest mark, around 150-170F with the door cracked, or a dehydrator at 135F, does the same work in 6 to 12 hours. The slices should be tacky and leathery, not wet, before the final roll in granulated sugar.
- Save the syrupThe peach-flavored syrup left in the pan is worth keeping. Refrigerated, it goes into drinks, over ice cream, or back into the next batch of fruit.
- StorageBecause these are dried rather than sealed under heat, they are not shelf-stable indefinitely. Layer them between parchment in an airtight tin and keep them cool and dry; check for mold, and refrigerate or freeze for anything past a few weeks. Humid conditions are the enemy.
- YieldTwo pounds of peaches with a pound and a half of sugar makes a modest batch — likely well under a quart jar of finished slices once they have dried down — enough to judge the method before scaling up.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia, compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree and published in 1877, gathered contributions from some 250 ladies of Virginia and her sister states, which may be why so many of its recipes end in initials rather than names — perhaps the shorthand of a community that knew who Mrs. W.P. was, though the practice is nowhere explained. Candying fruit in syrup and then drying it in sugar is one of the oldest preserving techniques in the European kitchen, long predating the airtight glass jar, and it survived in Southern households partly because it needed no seal and no cellar. Peaches were the obvious candidate: they had been grown in Virginia since the colonial period, ripened all at once, and would not keep more than a few days off the tree. A recipe like this one turned a glut into something that could sit in a box on a shelf.