Just as a rose is not merely a rose, a peach is not merely a peach, and a nectarine certainly isn’t merely a nectarine. Sure, that’s what the sign says when you go into the grocery store. But that’s for the convenience of the grocer, not a clue for you. The reality is that dozens, even hundreds, of different varieties of peaches and nectarines are grown and sold commercially every summer, sometimes of widely different qualities. Most of them are harvested for only a week or two, and then they’re gone. To stitch together something approaching a continuous season-long marketing campaign for fruit, grocers sell many different varieties under the name “peach” or “nectarine.” But that simple labeling can disguise what may be deep and fundamental differences among the different fruits.
The most obvious difference is the one between clingstone—fruit in which the flesh is glued to the seed inside—and freestone—that in which the seed floats free. For the most part, this difference is largely academic for grocery shoppers. Whereas clingstones once dominated the fresh peach market (and, in fact, are still grown in almost equal quantities as freestone), they are now almost entirely relegated to the canning industry. Customers just don’t want to have to wrestle the flesh away from the seed anymore. It’s messy.
And that’s how it goes in stone fruit land. Plant breeders are trying all the time to come up with new twists on old favorites. Frequently, the changes are designed to meet the demands of the growers or packers. One very delicious family of peach varieties has nearly vanished commercially because it forms a small but definite “beak” at the bottom of the fruit. That little point tends to break during packing and shipping, opening the door to spoilage.
This is certainly not to say that the wants of consumers are ignored. In fact, they drive some of the most fundamental changes. (The word “consumers” instead of “fruit lovers” is used here very deliberately. Many of the changes have nothing to do with the joy of eating a great piece of fruit.) One thing consumers like is red—lots of red. Peaches and nectarines used to be prized for a golden skin tone; now people are buying red, equating it with ripeness. (In fact, the high-red blush on many new varieties of stone fruit actually makes it harder to tell when the fruit is ready. The red comes on early, obscuring the background color, which is what really predicts quality.)
But red has a hold that is almost subconscious. There’s a story told by those in the stone fruit industry about a marketing experiment. A tasting panel was given two nectarines: one a fairly tasteless red variety, the other a great-tasting gold. Sitting around, tasting and talking about the fruit, the consumers unanimously agreed that the gold was a much better nectarine and that was the one they would buy. Then, on the way out the door, the panelists were offered boxes of nectarines as a thank you. One held the preferred golden fruit, the other the red. To a person, the consumers picked the red fruit to take home. Red sells.
That’s not all. Although it seems impossible to most true peach and nectarine lovers, consumers in general show a preference for fruit that is firm and nearly crisp, as opposed to melting. Breeders are working on that, too.
Probably the biggest change in the stone fruit world in the past decade, though, has been the color of the flesh of the fruit. White-fleshed peaches and nectarines, practically nonexistent commercially ten or fifteen years ago, now make up a substantial part of the harvest. In one three-year period in the mid-1990s, plantings of white-fleshed varieties increased by more than 350 percent. This was particularly notable for nectarines—more than a third of all the trees that were planted during that period were white-fleshed. White-fleshed fruit went from being so little known that it was all but ignored in the official statistics to so popular that it required its own category. In 1992 white-fleshed fruit accounted for less than 2 percent of the total harvest. By 2002 it accounted for roughly 20 percent of all peaches and nectarines.
What’s ironic is that until the 1950s, most of the nectarines that were grown in California were white-fleshed. Nectarines were a very minor crop at that point, and consumers were more willing to buy a fruit that had the familiar golden color of a peach. Perhaps more important, those older varieties were soft in texture and, because of their white flesh, showed bruises almost immediately. “You could ship them about as far as an ice-cream cone,” one old fruit grower remembered.
To take advantage of these stone fruit trends, California growers have recently begun marketing fruit labeled “Summerwhite.” The varieties included in this category combine the desirable characteristics of high-colored skin, white flesh and firm texture, and they make up more than 15 percent of the annual harvest.
Although white-fleshed fruit is popular domestically, the main demand for it comes from Asia. At one time as much as 80 percent of the white nectarines harvested in California went overseas, primarily to Taiwan. Furthermore, Asian customers love fruit that tastes extremely sweet. As a result, most of the white-fleshed peaches and nectarines that were planted at that time were not the old varieties, which had a nice tang to offset the sweetness, but rather what are called “sub-acid” varieties, which never develop much acidity at all. These work much like the so-called sweet onions, which actually don’t contain any more sugar than other onions but taste sweeter because they lack the balancing acidity. To lovers of old-fashioned fruit, these sub-acid varieties tend to taste simple—sort of like sucking on a sugar cube. But there is significant money beckoning growers toward sub-acids, and it’s hard to resist that incentive. From 1998 to 2002, 30 percent of all nectarines planted and 20 percent of all peaches planted were white-fleshed sub-acid varieties.
Up to now I’ve been lumping peaches and nectarines together as if they were the same fruit. What is the difference between a peach and a nectarine? Surprisingly little, botanists say; just one gene does it. In fact, so closely related are the two that sometimes peach seeds will sprout a sport nectarine tree and vice versa. Technically, peaches are “pubescent,” which means that they have hair on the surface. How much hair differs from variety to variety. Some, such as the longtime favorite Elberta family, are quite hirsute, which gives them a slightly bitter, almost tannic finish that their fans find a quite appealing contrast to all that aromatic, juicy flesh. Nectarines have no fuzz—their skin is completely smooth, like that of an apple. Although there are a lot of differences among individual varieties of both fruits, as a general rule nectarines have a slightly more acidic character with an almost lemony top note, while peaches tend to be muskier and richer in flavor. Practically speaking, this flavor difference is of interest mainly to connoisseurs, and the two fruits usually can be used interchangeably.
The biggest challenge with both is finding fruit that is truly well matured. Peaches and nectarines are climacteric fruits, which means that they continue to ripen after being picked. You can buy hard peaches at the grocery store, leave them on the counter for a couple of days and wind up with some pretty killer fruit.
Maturity is another matter entirely. Although peaches and nectarines do soften and become juicier and more aromatic after harvest, they don’t get any sweeter. That requires picking the fruit at the highest possible maturity. And though picking ripe fruit is no problem—you can smell it several feet away—choosing fruit that has been grown to maturity is tricky indeed. The best hint is the color of the fruit. This doesn’t mean picking the peach that is the reddest—remember that blush is a genetic variation that has nothing to do with either ripeness or maturity. Instead, it means paying attention to the quality of the background color of the fruit. This is more difficult than simply deciding “yellow” or “green.” Peaches and nectarines that have the most sugar and are the most mature have a background color (yellow) with a golden, almost orange cast. When you see a piece of fruit like this, pick it no matter what the variety is.
WHERE THEY’RE GROWN: Almost all of the nectarines grown in the United States come from California. Peaches are much more widely grown, with twenty-nine states harvesting significant amounts. But California still grows more than half—eight times as many as the next-closest states, Georgia and South Carolina.
HOW TO CHOOSE: Check the background color. Ripe fruit will be golden, not green. Mature fruit that hung on the tree long enough to develop the sugar will have a distinctive orange cast. Always with peaches and nectarines, trust your nose: fruit that is ripe and delicious will smell that way.
HOW TO STORE: If you buy fruit that is too firm, leave it at room temperature. Only when it begins to ripen should you move it to the refrigerator. In fact, chilling underripe fruit is about the worst thing you can do: it will turn the flesh mealy and dry.
HOW TO PREPARE: Nectarines don’t need peeling. Peaches should be peeled before cooking; otherwise the skin will slip away into the dish on its own. To peel a peach, cut a shallow X in its blossom end, then blanch it quickly in boiling water. Rescue it to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking, then peel away the skin with your fingers. The blanching time required will vary depending on the ripeness of the peach (in fact, you can peel very ripe peaches without blanching at all). To remove the pits from peaches and nectarines, cut the fruit in half lengthwise, following the cleft that runs down one side. Rotate the halves in opposite directions to free the pit. Peaches and nectarines are subject to enzymatic browning. If you are cutting them up in advance, sugar them to delay this reaction.
ONE SIMPLE DISH: Is there a better, simpler summer dessert than a perfectly ripe peach? Okay, serve it with shortbread. Or peel and slice peaches and marinate them briefly in a bowl of lightly sweetened red wine.