Damned Yankee -- Recipes from the Farm

Here's Jonathan's recipe for peach brandy. It still works!

Ingredients:

1 qt. jar with lid.
20 peach pits and skins
1 cup of sugar
2 cups hot water
4 to 6 months of patience

Instructions:

1 Wash peaches, peel and pit them.

2. Go off and bake a nice peach pie. Forget about the brandy!

But if you still crave alcohol:

1. Put pits and skins into your quart jar.

2 Boil the water and sugar into a medium syrup,, Fill quart jar to within one inch of top.

3 Seal quart jar and store in a cool, dry place for about 4-6 months. If you can bury it about a foot down, even better.

And Sarah's recipe for 14-day sweet pickles:

4 lbs of 2- to 5-inch pickling cucumbers. They can be whole, in strips, or in slices. (If packed whole, use cucumbers of uniform size)
3/4 cup canning or pickling salt (Separated – 1/4 cup on each of the 1st, 3rd, and 5th days)
2 tsp celery seed
2 tbsp mixed pickling spices
5-1/2 cups sugar
4 cups vinegar (5 percent)

Yield: About 5 to 9 pints

Procedure: Wash cucumbers. Cut 1/16-inch slice off blossom end and discard, but leave 1/4-inch of stem attached. Place whole cucumbers in suitable 1-gallon container. Add 1/4 cup canning or pickling salt to 2 quarts water and bring to a boil. Pour over cucumbers. Add suitable cover and weight. Place clean towel over container and keep the temperature at about 70ºF.

On the third and fifth days, drain salt water and discard. Rinse cucumbers and rescald the cover and weight. Return cucumbers to container. Add 1/4 cup salt to 2 quarts fresh water and boil. Pour over cucumbers. Replace cover and weight, and re-cover with clean towel. On the seventh day, drain salt water and discard. Rinse cucumbers and rescald containers, cover, and weight. Slice or strip cucumbers, if desired, and return to container. Place celery seed and pickling spices in small cheesecloth bag. Combine 2 cups sugar and 4 cups vinegar in a saucepan. Add spice bag, bring to a boil and pour pickling solution over cucumbers. Add cover and weight, and re-cover with clean towel.

On each of the next six days, drain syrup and spice bag and save. Add 1/2 cup sugar each day and bring to a boil in a saucepan. Remove cucumbers and rinse. Scald container, cover, and weight daily. Return cucumbers to container, add boiled syrup, cover, weight, and re-cover with towel.

On the 14th day, drain syrup into saucepan. Fill sterile pint jars, or clean quart jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Add 1/2 cup sugar to syrup and bring to boil. Remove spice bag. Pour hot syrup over cucumbers, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Adjust lids and process.

This is the last day to get a free copy of Damned Yankee for your Kindle:

https://www.amazon.com/Damned-Yankee-Marriage-Grenville-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00K1P6WI8

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Damned Yankee -- Recipes from the Farm