B4-U-BUY(tm) FYI - Spring A Southern Flavor On Your Guests, Country Inn Style

Spring A Southern Flavor On Your Guests, Country Inn Style

Gail Greco, host of the highly acclaimed public television series, Country Inn Cooking with Gail Greco, underwritten by DuPont No-Stick Surfaces/ SilverStone®, offers cooking suggestions from country inns and bed-and-breakfasts around the country. Greco is a leading authority on country inn cooking and founder of the Cooking Association of American Inns.

Memories of canning fruit bring me back to childhood days. Today, I take special pride in offering my family and guests homemade jams and preserves. Whether served for breakfast along with a warm brioche, during tea-time on a scone or after dinner poured over a bowl of vanilla ice cream, canned fruits can bring the "taste of summer" to you all year round.

Canning fresh fruits in the summer is a wonderful way to enjoy their taste throughout the year. Using fresh fruit and simple tools, such as a one-quart canning jar and a medium-sized nonstick saucepan coated with DuPont SilverStone®, you can create a terrific dessert to serve over the summer, or save for the chilly days of fall.

From the kitchen of Glen-Ella Springs Inn in Clarksville, Georgia, chef and innkeeper Barrie Aycock makes wonderful Brandied Peaches. Chef Aycock believes that flexibility is the secret to making good jams and preserves. "Making preserves is not an exact science," she says. "Fruit varies in sweetness and taste. You have to keep tasting and adjusting seasonings and cook until the batch reaches the consistency you want."

Brandied Peaches

8 fully ripe, unblemished peaches
2-1/2 cups sugar
2 cups water
1-2 cups brandy
1 quart canning jar and ring, or 2 1-pint jars with lids.

Blanch the peaches by placing the fruit into a pot of boiling water. Remove the peaches and let them cool just enough to handle. Rub off the skins. Prick the peaches all over with a sterile needle. (This will allow the flavors to soak through.) Cut the peaches in half and remove and discard the pits. In a medium non-stick saucepan coated with DuPont SilverStone, combine the sugar and water and boil for 10 minutes. Cook the peaches a few at a time in the sugar syrup until tender when pierced with a fork, about 5 minutes.

Transfer the peaches into a sterilized 1-quart canning jar. Pour syrup 1/2 to 3/4 of the way up the jar and fill the rest with brandy. Close the jar and process in a simmering water bath at 185 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes. Store for 1 month before serving. Yield: 1 quart.

Here are some more suggestions when canning fruits:

Mark your canned fruits with your special touch by adjusting seasonings and consistencies or mixing unusual fruits together.
Include canned fruits in gift baskets.