A Love Affair With Southern Cooking_ Recipes and Recollections - Jean Anderson [236]
9. Date and label each jar, then store on a cool, dark shelf for about a month before serving.
The drier the season, the sweeter the peach.
—OLD SOUTHERN SAYING
BOURBON’D PEACHES
MAKES 6 TO 8 PINTS
To Southerners, a peach preserved in aged bourbon or sour mash beats a brandied peach every time. As with pickled peaches, the best varieties to choose are small, firm clingstones (see headnote for Pickled Peaches, Chapter 7). Serve Bourbon’d Peaches with baked ham or roast pork, turkey, or chicken.
6 pounds small firm-ripe peaches about the size of apricots
4 quarts (1 gallon) cold water, mixed with 1 tablespoon powdered citric acid and 1 teaspoon powdered ascorbic acid (acidulated water)
6 cups sugar
6 cups (1½ pints) cold water
3 cups syrup (from boiling the peaches)
3 cups fine aged bourbon or sour mash whiskey
1. Wash and rinse 8 one-pint preserving jars and their closures and keep submerged in boiling water.
2. Blanch the peaches in batches in a separate kettle of 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 syrup.
3. Place the sugar and water in a very large nonreactive kettle, set over moderate heat, and bring to a boil. Working with 6 to 8 peaches at a time, lift from the acidulated water and ease into the boiling syrup. Adjust the heat so the syrup bubbles gently, and cook the peaches uncovered for 5 minutes.
4. As the peaches finish cooking, pack into the hot jars as attractively and snugly as possible, leaving ¼ inch head space at the top of each jar. Repeat until all the peaches have cooked 5 minutes and been packed into jars.
5. Insert a candy thermometer in the kettle of syrup and boil uncovered until the syrup reaches 220° F. Set the kettle off the heat and cool the syrup for 5 minutes.
6. Measure 3 cups of the syrup into a medium-size nonreactive saucepan and add the bourbon. Set over moderate heat and bring to a simmer—do not boil—then ladle just enough hot bourbon syrup into each jar to cover the peaches, again leaving ¼ inch head space.
7. 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 the jars for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath (212° F.). Lift from the water bath; complete the seals, if necessary, by tightening the lids, then cool to room temperature.
9. Date and label each jar, then store on a cool, dark shelf for about a month before serving.
Wild as a peach orchard hog.
—OLD SOUTHERN SAYING
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TIME LINE: the people and events that shaped Southern Cuisine
2000
Mississippi-born long-time New York Times food editor, columnist, and restaurant critic Craig Claiborne dies at the age of 79. A bachelor, he leaves his entire estate to the Culinary Institute of America at Hyde Park, New York.
The James Beard Foundation names Ben Barker chef-proprietor (with his wife Karen) of Magnolia Grill in Durham, North Carolina, Best Chef in the Southeast.
2001
Eliot Wigginton, long-time editor of Foxfire magazine, coauthors The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Cookery with Linda Garland Page.
The James Beard Foundation names Frank Stitt, chef-proprietor of Highlands Bar and Grill in Birmingham, Alabama, Best Chef in the Southeast.
2002
The James Beard Foundation names Anne Kearney of Peristyle in New Orleans Best Chef in the Southeast.
Now painstakingly restored, George Washington’s grist mill opens at Mount Vernon.
2003
The James Beard Foundation names Karen Barker of Magnolia Grill in Durham, North Carolina, America’s best pastry chef.
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WATERMELON RIND PICKLES
MAKES ABOUT 8 PINTS
One of the few southern recipes that my midwestern mother embraced is this one for watermelon rind pickles. I loved working beside