Historic Peach Jam (AND Apricot Jam)!

Peach jam on homemade bread!

As summer wound into autumn, I found some end-of-season stone fruit at my local grocery store - peaches and apricots available for a song!   A bit bruised and battered, they were for sale on the produce clearance rack, and, as such, were perfect for making jam.  I made some of each type, but the photos shown are of the peach jam (bet you couldn't tell!).

The Recipe- the same for each Fruit

This recipe comes from The Young Cook's Assistant and Housekeeper's Guide by P. Masters (1841, London, The recipe is similar or identical to many others I surveyed.  

Working Through the Recipe

I have made jam many times, so the concept was easy to me, but let's walk through it.

Weighing Ingredients

Weighing may seem intimidating, but is by far the easiest way to make this jam.  I purchased an inexpensive digital scale from Harbor Freight, that allow you to weigh in ounces, grams, and pounds.

Fruit

While I suppose it would be possible to mix peaches and apricots in a jam, the historic recipes kept them separate

The fruit needs to be peeled as the first step.  My fruit was so soft it was easy to simply peel it with a paring knife, but with a firmer fruit, peeling may be facilitated by briefly dropping each fruit into a boiling water bath for approximately 1 minute, then transferring it to an ice bath.

This recipe is dependent upon weight, so weigh and empty bowl or the pot in which you will cook your jam.

Once the fruit is peeled, cut it off the stone while holding it over a bowl or the pot and then cut into small chunks.  This will allow you to catch any juices that run from the fruit.  Weigh the container with the fruit, and subtract the tare weight of the empty container.

I heated the fruit over low heat to let it start breaking down and then mashed it with a potato masher.  If you want to use a modern tool, an immersion blender works superbly.

Peaches chunked and starting to soften on the stove

Flavoring

Period recipes uniformly suggest adding the cracked apricot or peach stones to the fruit   The inner stones would be removed after the jam was finished cooking and before putting it into containers.  Some recipes suggested boiling the inner stones with sugar and water to make a flavored syrup, which was to be added to the fruit.

Peach and almond stones will give a bitter almond flavoring to foods.  The flavoring is no longer used because that same flavoring contains cyanide.  DO NOT use the stones for flavoring - if you wish that historic flavor, add a small amount of almond flavoring once you remove the jam from the heat.

After reading a number of modern peach/apricot jam recipes, I noted that lemon flavoring has become the favored taste. I made some with each, to see how the flavoring affected the result. They do yield different results - lemon makes the jam "brighter" in taste, while almond gives a warm, mellow taste.  I know that's hard to explain, but that is how my palate interpreted it.

Canning

Obviously, period cooks did not have access to our modern canning equipment.  Preserves such as jam and jelly were normally put up in a glass or stoneware container.  A piece of paper, saturated in brandy, was placed on the surface (the "brandy paper" in the recipe), which kept the air out of direct contact with the surface.  Over the top of the container, the cook would seal several pieces of light-weight white paper that had been dipped in egg white.  As the egg white dried, it would tighten and form a seal.

CLEARLY this is not modern food safety.  I would recommend you follow the Ball canning recommendations.  Using clean canning jars, fill each with the hot jam to within 1/8" of the top, with the rim and seals clean, and cover with clean c2-piece canning lids.  Immerse in a boiling water bath that covers the top by 1-2" and let it gently boil for 10 min.  Remove to a rack on a counter to cool.  Please see Ball's canning guidelines to keep yourself safe
https://www.freshpreserving.com/waterbath-canning.html

Peach jam opened, ready to eat!

Modern Interpretation of the Recipe - Let's Cook!

Peaches (or apricots, if making apricot jam)
White granulated sugar,3/4 of a pound per each pound of fruit
almond extract, if desired

Make sure your canning jars and lids are clean and ready.  If using a boiling water bath for modern food safety, set it up and get the water going.

Blanch the fruit by dropping it into boiling water for approximately one minute, then transfer it to ice water to cool.  Peel the fruit, discarding the peels.

Cut away the fruit from the stone, discard the stones.  Weigh the resulting amount of stoned fruit.

Set the fruit in a large, heavy-bottomed pot and let the fruit start to soften over heat.  Mash and or puree, depending upon how fine you would like your jam to be.

Weigh 3/4 of a pound of sugar for each pound of fruit. Add the sugar into the pot with the fruit, and stir well.

Continuing stirring until the jam has "set."  Period recipes estimate this may take approximately 30 min.  I have used various historic techniques of spoon drop and saucer testing, but now prefer a candy thermometer.  Several sources recommend 220 F as the ideal temperature for jam.  At that temperature, my jam was soft but lovely.

Pour the jam into clean containers, wipe the lip and seals, and cover with a 2-piece lid.  Immerse in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.  Remove to cool.

The Results

Heaven.  Absolute heaven.  It is hard to explain the taste of this jam, which we ate on a chilly late September day (and at a reenactment, to boot!).  It tasted of summer, pure and simple.  Delicious on fresh bread or toasted.