Notes from a Summer Kitchen

Text by Marie-Christine Perry
Photo by Danielle Whitaker

July brought us to a day I had been waiting for – the arrival of the Peach Truck from Georgia. A couple of years ago, we had heard about the Peach Truck from our friends Hartley and Janet, who waxed lyrical about the wonderful Georgia peaches arriving at one’s door in prime shape directly from the farm, at the peak of ripeness and taste, ready for eating out of hand or for being turned into countless pies, jams, and other delights! We, of course, immediately signed up for emails from the Peach Truck, and earlier this year, we ordered our box, and waited for the delivery day. Our allotted slot was between 8 and 9 a.m., the location a parking lot in Lee. My partner Cheryl took a day off, we got up early and arrived at the appointed place just on time to pick up 25 pounds of delight. The truck was a semi, bright red, and cars were lined up as we arrived. It was all quite efficient, and we soon transferred our box, plus a selection of barbecue sauce, hot sauce and jam, into the car. Driving back, we stopped at the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge for breakfast. A wonderful day, to be repeated next summer.

    On the advice of the truck staff, we waited three days for our peaches to reach perfection. We ate a few, shared a few with friends, and then I got busy. The result is bottled peach barbecue sauce with maple and bourbon, peaches in syrup, and bourbon vanilla peach jam.

    For all the recipes, I started with a huge pot of boiling water, immersed the peaches in water for one or two minutes and briskly took them out of the water to peel.

    For peaches in syrup, start with a simple syrup made of one part sugar to two parts water and bring to a boil. I used four cups sugar to eight cups water and canned seven quarts, with simple syrup left over. Fill quart-size mason jars with quartered, peeled peaches, add hot syrup to a half inch of the rim, close the jars and process 20 minutes in a water bath. Voilà!

    For bourbon maple barbecue sauce, I concocted my own recipe, to use a gigantic bottle of ketchup we had gotten at Costco as the base, though most recipes ask for tomato paste as a base. Feel free to imagine your own, and of course, the degree of heat is always up to you. For each cup of diced peeled peaches, you will need 3/4 cup cider vinegar, 1/2 cup ketchup, 1/2 cup molasses, 1/2 cup maple syrup, 1/2 cup bourbon, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 tablespoon packed brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon Cayenne pepper, 1/2 teaspoon hot Hungarian paprika. You can add liquid smoke or a bit of soy sauce, too, if you would like. In a medium saucepan, add all of the ingredients and cook over medium heat, whisking together to dissolve any lumps. Cook until the peaches are softened and the sauce has thickened to desired consistency, about 20 minutes. You can make one or two cups and use immediately (it can be refrigerated for a few days), but for large quantities, put in pint mason jars and process in water bath for 15 minutes.

For vanilla bourbon peach jam, you need 3 ½ pounds ripe peaches, 3 ½ cups brown sugar, 3 ½ cups granulated sugar, 4 tablespoons powdered pectin, 4 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice, 2 tablespoons vanilla extract, 3/4 cup bourbon, pat of butter. Combine the two sugars and dry pectin and mix well. Combine all ingredients with the lemon juice, lime juice, 1/2 cup of the bourbon, vanilla and butter. Bring to a full rolling boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Add the remaining bourbon and let boil for a few seconds. Turn off heat and let mixture settle. Skim any foam from the surface with a metal spoon. Test the jam on a cold plate to make sure it sets up; if not, continue to cook and test until it does. Remove the jars from the oven and ladle the hot jam into hot sterilized jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Process in water bath for 10 minutes.

Enjoy the bounty and plan a trip to the Peach Truck (thepeachtruck.com) next year!