Old-Fashioned Brandied Fruit

Brandied Fruit.

Memories of visiting my best friend back when we were ten or eleven washes over me as I think about the beautiful square glass jar that her mother Jane had on the kitchen counter. The glass jar was filled with the brightest, prettiest fruit cocktail; surrounding the fruit in that sparkly jar was a very sweet, brandied liquid that made everything seem somehow magical.

What it was, was brandied fruit! Of course, I didn't really know that it was alcoholic--just that it looked (and tasted, when Val and I would sneak a spoonful) so wonderful.

I was remembering that jar of fruit recently and decided to try to make some of my own. I had some peaches that had been soaked in vodka for about 4 months, which I was loathe to throw away. Instead I cut them up in small chunks, added a can of pineapple, a bit of nearly-dry orange pieces and three or so cups of sugar. Then I added some of the peach brandy we'd made--not a lot, just a little, to give the sugar something to melt into.

Since then, the quart jar I started with has grown to be almost a gallon. I've added another large can of fruit cocktail and another two cups of sugar, along with another cup or so of the peach liquor we made. I've let it set, undisturbed on a shadowed shelf in the pantry for a month or more and it is gorgeous! It doesn't taste too bad either!

I've been asked what this is good for, what its uses are. Well....

Ice cream topping. Ice cream smoothies or fruit smoothies (non-virgin, clearly). Coffee-cake mixer. Pancake topper. Snacking. Angel Food cake decor.

I could go on, but you get the point.

The sweet thing is, it'll keep going and going, as long as you replenish it with another can of fruit and another cup or so of sugar for each 2 cups you use up.

I've been told that this process of fruit preservation has been around for many, many ages. It seems so amazing that something good can come from NOT putting food under refrigeration, or adding chemical preservatives.