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Sweets/Treats Brandy Peaches

brandy peaches.
(from Housekeeping in Old Virginia, by Marion Cabell Tyree, 1878)

Ingredients:

twelve pounds large freestone Heath peaches​
four pounds sugar​
good whiskey or brandy​
blanched peach-kernels​

Instructions:

For twelve pounds large freestone Heath peaches, not quite ripe and delicately pared, make a syrup of four pounds sugar. Scald a few peaches at a time in the syrup, till all have gone through this process. Place on dishes to cool. Then put in glass jars and add enough good whiskey or brandy to the syrup to cover the peaches. Any spirit will do, if strong enough. Add a few blanched peach-kernels. In a few days see if more liquor or sugar is required. If so, drain off the syrup, add what is needed, and pour again over the fruit. It is a mistake to put too much sugar. Always use freestone peaches. Mrs. S. T.​
 
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Oh wow, that sounds good!! Thanks for sharing this @Albert Sailhorst! I read a passage in a Bruce Catton book that pointed to brandy peaches as a popular sutler's item that let soldiers circumvent alcohol prohibitions in the Army of the Potomac.

If they followed this recipe, I can see why they'd want to!

I remember reading a diary entry from a nurse in a Union hospital too who was over the moon about obtaining some jars of brandy peaches. I wondered what the big deal was as I figured they were lightly 'brandied', I had no notion they were moonshine peaches :roflmao:
 
From "Housekeeping In Old Virginia" By Marion Cabell Tyree, 1877:


Brandy Peaches.

For twelve pounds large freestone Heath peaches, not quite
ripe and delicately pared, make a syrup of four pounds sugar.
Scald a few peaches at a time in the syrup, till all have gone
through this process. Place on dishes to cool. Then put in glass jars and add enough good whiskey or brandy to the syrup to cover the peaches. Any spirit will do, if strong enough.
Add a few blanched peach-kernels. In a few days see if more
liquor or sugar is required. If so, drain off the syrup, add what
is needed, and pour again over the fruit. It is a mistake to put
too much sugar. Always use freestone peaches.
I want to see the instructions for paring peaches "delicately."
 
I remember reading a diary entry from a nurse in a Union hospital too who was over the moon about obtaining some jars of brandy peaches. I wondered what the big deal was as I figured they were lightly 'brandied', I had no notion they were moonshine peaches :roflmao:
Hopefully no one decided to smoke after sampling these - I doubt eyebrow transplants were a common procedure back then. :giggle:
 
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