Spiced Peaches

Ingredients

• seven pounds of fruit
• three pounds of sugar
• a quart of vinegar
• a half ounce of cloves
• a half ounce of cinnamon
• three pints of water

Method

1. 1

   Cut peaches in halves and remove stones.

2. 2

   Boil sugar with water, then cook peaches until tender.

3. 3

   Remove and place in a jar.

4. 4

   Simmer syrup until thick, add vinegar and spices, then pour over peaches.

Nutrition per serving

As published

This recipe was extracted from Cooking and castle-building (1880) by Emma P. Ewing, Marietta McPherson Greenough, page 84. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

and an ounce of cloves. Boil slowly three or four hours, stirring frequently. Half an hour before removing from the fire add one pound of sugar. Or this cucumber catsup, which is simple and easily made, yet full of pun- gency : Grate six green cucumbers and three onions. Add to the grated mixture a teaspoonful of salt, and half a teaspoonful of pepper. Drain oflf the juice, and, after measuring, throw it away, adding to the catsup the same quantity of vinegar. Mix well and bottle for use." "But," said Emeline, " many people prefer cu- LITTLE THINGS. 199 cumber pickles, pure and simple, to all mixtures, and fancy preparations. Do you know the best method of making them ? " "Perhaps not. But this is a very excellent method : Put the freshly gathered cucumbers in a jar, sprinkle lightly with salt, and when the jar is full of cucumbers pour on as much boiling water as it will hold. After the water becomes cold, remove the cucumbers to a preserving-kettle, cover with weak vinegar, and heat to boiling point. Remove, drain, and i3ut in a jar, distributing among them pieces of sweet pepper. Cover with strong vinegar, in whJch a few cloves and a small quantity of sugar have been heated. If you wish to improve the color of the pickles, line the kettle, before placing them in it, with green cabbage or grape leaves, and put a small piece of alum in the vineo^ar." " But how many cloves and how much sugar do you put in them?" asked Alice. " An ounce of cloves and a pound of sugar to a gallon of vinegar, is what / should use," I re- plied ; "but that is a matter of taste, and, as I said before, I prefer, in such cases not to give weights or measures. I will also add, Alice, that when I speak of vinegar I always mean good, strong cider vinegar, and not the weak, watery, insipid stuff that is often used by housewives, with the almost certain loss of the pickles on which it is 200 COOKING AND CASTLE-BUILDING. used. Yet I notice that people whose pickles spoil from want of good vinegar, generally attri- bute their having spoiled to some other cause." "Cousin Kate, I hope you will give some nice methods of sweet pickling, or spicing fruits. Among pickles, sweet or spiced ones are my favorites, although mamma, no doubt, would ob- ject to them as occupying neutral ground between pickles and preserves, as being too undecided, not Ijositive enough, in character to suit her." "Spiced peaches and damsons are both very nice," I answered. " The former I prepare in this manner : Selecting hard free-stone peaches, I cut in halves, and remove the stones before par- ing, as I find them much easier to remove before than after paring. For seven pounds of fruit I use three pounds of sugar, a quart of vinegar, and a half ounce each of cloves and cinnamon. I put the sugar, with three pints of water

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.