COMPOTE OF PEACHES.
1572. INGREDIENTS.—1 pint of syrup No. 1512, about 15 small peaches.
Mode.—Peaches that are not very large, and that would not look well for dessert, answer very nicely for a compôte. Divide the peaches, take out the stones, and pare the fruit; make a syrup by recipe No. 1512, put in the peaches, and stew them gently for about 10 minutes. Take them out without breaking, arrange them on a glass dish, boil the syrup for 2 or 3 minutes, let it cool, pour it over the fruit, and, when cold, it will be ready for table.
Time.—10 minutes. Average cost, 1s. 2d.
Sufficient for 5 or 6 persons. Seasonable in August and September.
PEACH AND NECTARINE.—The peach and nectarine, which are among the most delicious of our fruits, are considered as varieties of the same species, produced by cultivation. The former is characterized by a very delicate down, while the latter is smooth; but, as a proof of their identity as to species, trees have borne peaches on one part and nectarines on another; and even a single fruit has had down on one side, and on the other none; the trees are almost exactly alike, as well as the blossoms. Pliny states that the peach was originally brought from Persia, where it grows naturally. At Montreuil, a village near Paris, almost the whole population is employed in the cultivation of peaches; and this occupation has maintained the inhabitants for ages, and, in consequence, they raise better peaches than anywhere else in France. In Maryland and Virginia, peaches grow nearly wild in orchards resembling forests; but the fruit is of little value for the table, being employed only in fattening hogs and for the distillation of peach brandy. On the east side of the Andes, peaches grow wild among the cornfields and in the mountains, and are dried as an article of food. The young leaves of the peach are sometimes used in cookery, from their agreeable flavour; and a liqueur resembling the fine noyeau of Martinique may be made by steeping them in brandy sweetened with sugar and fined with milk: gin may also be flavoured in the same manner. The kernels of the fruit have the same flavour. The nectarine is said to have received its name from nectar, the particular drink of the gods. Though it is considered as the same species as the peach, it is not known which of the varieties come from the other; the nectarine, is by some considered as the superior fruit.