Do you lie them hairy, or smooth?

Ok, this is a question that gets asked a lot in my circles, and not necessarily about fruit. Ok, about fruit. In a metaphorical sense.

I'm going to stop here before I get in more trouble. Apparently there is a midwestern contingent that does not like the racy character of my blogs. If you're one of them, I have a suggestion. STOP READING IT.

Now, off to the topic at hand. Think: I've said fruit, and I've said "hairy and smooth." Who's astute out there? How about you, the hairy one? Or you, the smooth one. You know, the guy with skin as pink as a peach.

How big a clue do I have to give you? Today we're talking about peaches and nectarines.

Many people feel that the best dessert you could ever have, is a perfect, ripe, sweet peach, just as it is. The kind of peach where you have to lean over when you eat it, because the juice runs out all over your shirt and stains it. The kind of peach that makes your mouth feel like it's exploding with flavor.

How often do you get that? Not often, because unfortunately, like so many things, modern agriculture has done all that it can to make peaches taste like nothing, or awful. Eating peaches out of season is ridiculous. Peaches need to be nearly ripe when they're taken off the tree, or they will never soften to the point of luscious ripeness that we all love. You'll never get that juiciness. So, wait until it's hot. Wait until those days when you don't feel like eating anything other than fruit, and that's when you should be buying and eating peaches. And nectarines. As often as you can.

Science tells us that the only difference between a peach and a nectarine is one gene. That is the gene for "fuzz" on the peach. And some years ago, there was a tremendous amount of research on trying to eliminate the hairiness from peaches, but not turn them into nectarines.

HUH? Actually, I can see one reason for this. For a while, my partner Guy had an allergy to peach fuzz. It just made his mouth blow up like a balloon. I have heard of this in other people too. Then, one day, it all went away. Now he can enjoy peaches the way I do.

Anyway, back to that one gene difference. If they say that's it, well, ok. I'm somewhat skeptical, because while they are close, and interchangeable in many dishes, I find peaches and nectarines to be two different animals. To my taste, nectarines are always a bit more acid and tart than peaches are. This is true whether they are the yellow ones, or the white ones. The white ones, incidentally, in both types of fruit, are less acid than the yellow.

There are countless varieties of peaches and nectarines, and you should try to taste as many as you can. Interestingly, you will have an easier time getting the names of different varieities of peach than nectarine, and I'm really not quite sure why that is. For example, anyone "of a certain age," recalls that "Elberta free stone peaches" were considered the pinnacle of good fruit. You almost never see an Elberta these days. They're too hard to ship. But you can get Suncrests from California (read the wonderful "Epitaph for a Peach" by Mas Matsumoto if you think you'd never get excited about saving fruit trees from destruction), and others. And you'll hear people talking about "cling" peaches versus freestones. You never hear that about nectarines. I don't know why that is, either, because the distinction exists for nectarines, too. In peaches, "cling" peaches come into season earlier, and it refers, essentially, to the difficulty of getting the flesh of the peach off of the pit. They are considered not to be as good eating as the freestones, and I agree with that. Amongst the freestones, I am very partial to Red Havens.

Nectarines come into season later than peaches do, at least here in the East, which is another one of the reasons I question whether the only difference is the fuzz. And to be honest, I cannot think of as many varieites of nectarines. There is one called "summer flame," and one called "fantasia," and there are many others, but that's what I remember now.

So, how about some recipes? Ok, yeah, let's cook. And let's make them easy.

Well, it doesn't get much easier than this. When I was a young boy, one of the the things we all did, late in the summer, was put up bottle after bottle after bottle of peaches in red wine. I was actually allowed to have them, once in a while. For my family, it was a way of getting summer during the winter (maybe our version of "Dandelion Wine?"). I still love peaches in red wine, but here's a fact: the tannins in red wine toughen the skins. And it HAS to have something to do with the fuzz, because it doesn't happen with nectarines. So I'm giving the recipe with nectarines. If you want to do it with peaches, I suggest you peel them. Here's how you do it: cut a small 'x' at the bottom of the peach. Put them in a pot of boiling water. YOu don't need much water - the more peaches you put in, the further up the water mark will go- and then fish them out after thirty seconds. Toss them into a bowl of iced water and just peel away the skin. This assumes the peaches are ripe. If they're not, well... It won't work.

If you use nectarines, you just slice them up. You want six of whatever variety you use. Cut the slices about a quarter inch thick, but don't feel like you need to be scientific about it.

Separately, take a full bottle of a good wine, not a great wine. A young zinfandel is good, or something that tastes of fruit. (I'm not sure what that means, but that's what people recommend, so I included it in case you do. I just use zinfandel). Stir a cup of fine sugar into it. This is sometimes called bakers sugar. DON'T use confectioner's. Then add the fruit, and let it sit. I let it sit, unrefrigerated for two days. You don't need to let it sit that long.

DONE. Now, this sounds like a dessert that is too simple, but let me tell you a story. I made this dessert for a party once, and because I thought it was too simple, and not enough, I also made a cherry pie. No one ate the cherry pie. But everyone had seconds on the nectarines. One gentleman went and got some soft white cheese to eat with his, which seems fine to me.

I'll be coming back to more on peaches and nectarines in days to come, but start with this. You'll like it.