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Brandy Peaches
Split some large peaches in halves, put them in a lined-pan with some syrup and boil for two or three minutes; then take them out, peel the skins off, put them back again in the same syrup and let them simmer for five minutes; then take the pan off the fire and leave peaches in it till the next day. Drain the peaches and arrange them carefully in jars. Boil their syrup to the feather degree, then mix with it an equal quantity of white brandy, and when nearly cold, pour it over the peaches. When the syrup is quite cold, cork the jars and tie bladders over the tops. Keep them in a cool place.
A classic sugar-and-spirit preserve rather than a modern water-bath canning method. The whole thing turns on getting the syrup to the right stage before the brandy goes in, since sugar concentration and alcohol together are what keep the fruit.
- "Feather degree"An old sugar-boiling stage, roughly 232–240F on a thermometer, just above thread and below soft ball. The name comes from the way boiled syrup blows off a skimmer in feathery shreds. Take it off the heat there; go much higher and the syrup will set hard once the brandy cools it.
- The syrup is unmeasuredNo proportions are given at all, presumably because a professional kitchen would have syrup on hand. A heavy syrup of about equal weights sugar and water, enough to cover the fruit, matches the intent, but the original quantity is genuinely ambiguous.
- "Lined-pan"A copper pan lined with tin, used so the fruit acid would not react with bare copper. Stainless steel or enamelled cast iron does the same job.
- White brandyAn unaged, colourless grape brandy or eau-de-vie, chosen so it would not stain the fruit. A clear unaged brandy or a neutral 80-proof grape spirit is the closest equivalent; ordinary aged cognac works but tints the peaches amber.
- Why the two-stage boilThe short first boil loosens the skins so they slip off, and the second short simmer sets the flesh without collapsing it. Freestone peaches, just short of dead ripe, hold their shape; a soft peach will turn to purée in the jar.
- Add the brandy off the heatThe recipe has the spirit mixed into syrup that has come off the boil, and poured on 'nearly cold'. Adding spirit to syrup at full heat will drive off some of the alcohol that contributes to the preserving.
- BladdersAnimal bladder was tied wet over a jar mouth and shrank as it dried into a tight skin. Use a modern two-piece lid or a screw cap with a disc of parchment against the fruit.
- StorageCorked jars in a cool larder was a 19th-century pantry, not a shelf-stable pack by current standards. Keep these in the refrigerator and give them a month or two before eating; if you want a preserve to sit at room temperature, follow a current tested canning recipe instead.
- Yield and servingServing -- the recipe gives no yield or jar count. Serve them cold with the syrup spooned over, alongside roast ham or game, or with ice cream and a little of the liquor.
Brandied fruit was one of the standard ways an American household carried summer into winter before reliable home canning, and peaches were a common candidate. The technique itself is older and French in descent: fruits a l'eau-de-vie, put up in unaged spirit so the fruit stays pale, were a fixture of confectioners' manuals. Oscar Tschirky, the Swiss-born maitre d'hotel whose name fronted this 1896 collection, was front-of-house rather than a cook, and the book compiles material from a range of sources as well as the hotel's repertoire. Brandy peaches served two purposes: a garnish for roast meats and game, and a dessert that could be sent out in January and taste of August.