Apricots in Brandy
Source: Mary Randolph, 1824
History
"Apricots in brandy" appears in Mary Randolph's The Virginia House-Wife, first published 1824 and generally considered the first regional American cookbook. (The freely readable Project Gutenberg text is an 1860 printing; 1824 is the first-edition date.) In the book it is one of a small group of fruit-in-brandy preserves that sit together — apricots, peaches, cherries, and magnum bonum plums 'in brandy'. Randolph framed the collection as the product of practical household experiment, writing that she was 'compelled... to study the subject, and by actual experiment to reduce every thing in the culinary line, to proper weights and measures'. Randolph (1762–1828) had kept a Richmond boarding house from 1807. Beyond its printing in this cookbook, the record does not document a distinct origin story, a French 'confit' lineage, or a class meaning for this specific preparation; preserving fruit in spirit was a common English-tradition household technique that the book presents without such a backstory.
Ingredients
- fresh apricots
- 0.5 weight of apricots loaf sugar
- water
- equal parts syrup (reduced)
- equal parts French brandy
Instructions
- Combine loaf sugar with enough water to cover the apricots. Bring to a boil and skim off any impurities. Add the fresh apricots and let them remain in the liquid for five or six minutes. Remove the apricots with a slotted spoon, reserving the syrup, and lay them on dishes to cool completely.
- Continue boiling the syrup until it is reduced by half. When the apricots are completely cool, place them in bottles. Cover them with equal quantities of the reduced syrup and French brandy.
- Note: If using cling-stone apricots, they will require more scalding time.