A Love Affair With Southern Cooking_ Recipes and Recollections - Jean Anderson [235]
Always interested in food preparation and preservation, Harriott continued to travel and at one point visited Mary Randolph’s boardinghouse in Richmond, Virginia, noting the “excellent fare and genteel treatment.”
What impressed her most, however, was the “refrigerator” that Mary Randolph had invented, two boxes separated by firmly packed layers of powdered charcoal. Into the inner box went five pecks of ice, which kept perishables cold for twenty-four hours. Harriott sketched the contraption in detail, hoping to build one of her own back home.
Harriott Pinckney Horry’s major contribution, however, is her receipt book, one of the first to set down Colonial American recipes in “scientific” detail. It’s true that a few of them descend from Hannah Glasse’s very English Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy (London, 1747). True, too, that some show the French influence of the Huguenots.
Still, the majority are Harriott’s distinctly Lowcountry receipts, her mother’s, or ones shared by friends and other relatives. Together they provide a glimpse of life among South Carolina’s plantation aristocracy before and after the American Revolution.
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PICKLED PEACHES
MAKES 6 TO 8 PINTS
In many parts of the South, the Thanksgiving turkey or Easter ham wouldn’t be the same without pickled peaches or Bourbon’d Peaches. In the old days, southern women not only pickled their own peaches but picked them, too. Some still do. Experienced cooks know that the best varieties to pickle are small, firm-ripe clingstones: the yellow-fleshed Florida Dawn or Florida King, for example; the rosy Indian Cling; or even semi-clings like Redhaven and Springbrite. They know, too, that if pickled peaches are to be plump and full of flavor, they must stand in the pickling syrup overnight.
6 pounds small firm-ripe peaches about the size of apricots
4 quarts (1 gallon) cold water, mixed with 2 teaspoons powdered ascorbic acid (acidulated water)
4½ cups sugar
3 cups cold water
1½ cups white (distilled) vinegar
1½ cups cider vinegar
3 cinnamon sticks, broken in several places
3 large blades of mace
One 2-inch strip lemon zest
One 2-inch strip orange zest
Whole cloves (2 for each peach)
1. Blanch the peaches in batches in boiling water, allowing 30 seconds for each. Transfer at once to ice water, then slip off the skins. Submerge the peeled peaches in the acidulated water while you prepare the pickling syrup.
2. Place the sugar, water, and two vinegars in a very large nonreactive kettle. Tie the cinnamon, mace, and lemon and orange zests in cheesecloth and drop into the kettle. Set over moderately high heat and bring to a boil.
3. Meanwhile, lift the peaches from the acidulated water and stud each with 2 cloves. As soon as the pickling syrup boils, ease 6 peaches into the kettle, adjust the heat so the mixture bubbles gently, and cook uncovered for 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, lift the peaches to a large heatproof bowl. Repeat until all the peaches have cooked 5 minutes.
4. Bring the pickling syrup to a rolling boil, return all of the peaches to the kettle, then set off the heat, cover, and let stand overnight.
5. The next day, wash and rinse 8 one-pint preserving jars and their closures and submerge in a large kettle of boiling water.
6. Lift the peaches from the pickling syrup with a slotted spoon and transfer to a large bowl. Set the kettle over high heat and quickly bring the pickling syrup to a full boil. Discard the spice bag.
7. Pack the peaches as attractively and tightly as possible in the hot preserving jars, filling to within ¼ inch of the top, then ladle in just enough boiling pickling syrup to cover the peaches. Run a thin-blade spatula around the inside of each jar to release air bubbles; wipe the rim with a clean, damp cloth, then screw on the closure.
8. Process