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Peach Jam
Peel twenty-five pounds medium-sized, sound, ripe peaches, split in two, remove stones, then prepare jam in similar manner to apricot jam.
A cross-reference rather than a full recipe: the peaches are prepared, then handed off to the apricot jam method earlier in the book. What follows fills in the numbers that a 1900s kitchen took for granted.
- Scale it downTwenty-five pounds of peaches is a preserving-day quantity meant for a season's worth of jars. Five pounds is a manageable modern batch, giving about three pints on the ratio below.
- The missing sugarThe original gives no sugar; it is presumably carried in the apricot entry the recipe points to. Period proportions typically run three-quarters to one pound of sugar per pound of prepared fruit; much less than three-quarters tends to give a loose, quick-spoiling jam.
- Peeling twenty-five poundsDo not pare them with a knife. Dip the peaches in boiling water for 30 to 45 seconds, then into ice water, and the skins slip off.
- Peaches need acidPeaches are an acid fruit, though pH varies with variety and ripeness, and they are naturally low in pectin. Two tablespoons of lemon juice per four pounds of fruit both helps the set and keeps the jam reliably acidic.
- How to know it is doneCook uncovered at a hard boil, skimming, until a jelly thermometer reads 220F at sea level, or until a spoonful chilled on a cold saucer wrinkles when pushed. Peach jam scorches easily once it thickens, so stir the bottom constantly toward the end.
- Sealing is not in the originalBooks of this era commonly sealed jam with paraffin. Use current water-bath canning guidance instead: clean jars, 1/4-inch headspace, ten minutes in boiling water, or refrigerate and eat within a month.
- YieldFigure about one pint of finished jam per pound and a half of peeled fruit. The full twenty-five pounds gives somewhere around fifteen to eighteen pints.
The International Cook Book belongs to the era of the professional hotel chef writing for the household, and its preserving section works by cross-reference, one entry pointing back to another. Apricot jam gets the full treatment. The scale tells you the rest of the story. Twenty-five pounds of ripe peaches is what arrived when the fruit was in and had to be dealt with in a day or two, before refrigeration made the choice optional, and jam-making of this kind was less a project than a form of storage. Peaches were the classic American case: abundant and fragile, so July and August meant putting up sugar-heavy preserves that would carry the flavor into winter.