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Preserved Nectarines
Pare some nectarines, cut them in halves to remove the stones, put them into a saucepan of boiling water, and cook gently at the side of the fire. As soon as the fruit floats on top, take them out and put on a strainer to drain. Weigh them and to every pound add three-fourths of a pound of clarified sugar; put the fruit and sugar into a preserving-pan, boil until the syrup is nearly clear, then place them with the syrup on one side to cool. Let the whole remain for a day, then drain off the syrup and boil till it becomes quite thick; add the fruit and boil for a short time. Repeat this once more, and, lastly, pour the whole into a deep dish and let it remain for two days. Put it into pots or jars, cover them tightly, and the preserve is ready for use.
A four-to-five-day preserve in the old confectioner's manner: the syrup is strengthened by stages rather than all at once, so the fruit takes up sugar without collapsing or shrivelling. Almost all the work is waiting.
- The hinge: build the syrup slowlyThe whole point of draining, boiling the syrup down, and returning the fruit is gradual osmosis. Boiling nectarines hard in a heavy syrup from the start toughens the skin-side and leaves the centres watery, so do not try to compress the three stages into one afternoon.
- Clarified sugarIn this period clarified sugar meant a syrup made by dissolving loaf sugar in water and skimming it clear, traditionally with beaten egg white to lift the scum. Modern granulated sugar is already pure; make a syrup of the weighed sugar with a splash of water, or simply add the sugar dry to the drained fruit and let it dissolve.
- The proportionThree-quarters of a pound of sugar to a pound of prepared fruit is roughly 1 3/4 cups of granulated sugar per pound. This is a lighter preserve than a modern jam, which is part of why it needs the repeated boilings to thicken.
- "At the side of the fire"A cooler zone of the range, not the hot centre; read it as a bare simmer rather than a rolling boil, in a wide pan. The recipe gives no time or temperature: the fruit floating is the doneness cue.
- ParingNectarines have no fuzz but the skin is tight. A brief blanch and cold plunge may loosen it more neatly than a peeler and help keep the halves whole, though nectarine skins do not always slip as readily as peaches'. Freestone varieties save considerable swearing at the stone.
- How thick is thickThe final syrup boilings are meant to bring it to a heavy, slow-dripping consistency, about 220F on a thermometer. Take it off before it colours, since caramelised sugar will overwhelm the fruit.
- Sealing and keeping"Cover them tightly" reflects a household that expected wax, a bladder or a paper cap and a cold larder. For anything beyond a few weeks, follow current canning guidance: hot jars, new lids, and a boiling-water bath. Otherwise treat it as a refrigerator preserve.
- YieldThe original gives none. About 3 lb of nectarines, roughly 8 to 10 fruit, should fill four or five half-pint jars, but this is an estimate only.
The nectarine is a smooth-skinned peach, the same species as the fuzzy sort and long known to gardeners as a sport that appears on peach trees, and it turns up in nineteenth-century English and American preserving books beside apricots and greengages. The staged method here belongs to the confectioner's tradition of preserved and candied fruit rather than to jam-making: a lighter syrup, strengthened over several days, keeps the halves whole and glossy so they can be served as a dessert fruit or used to garnish ices and creams. Oscar Tschirky, maitre d'hotel of the Waldorf and the name on this 1896 book, was compiling the working repertoire of a large establishment, and one might imagine preserved fruit put up in quantity when nectarines were cheap in late summer, though the recipe itself says nothing of the kitchen's habits.