Damien mixes: Peach

© Damien Guichard

As summer and its fragrant fruits, berries and many vibrant aromas are slowly getting replaced by a more melancolic and humble season when it comes to produce, we cheer it on one last time with one of my favourite fruits: peaches. I could indeed blend peach into puree and make a Bellini but what’s the fun in that? This month we will be looking at our peaches with a zero waste approach because… why not?

I have never specialized in zero waste because our menu at Wax On does not allow its best articulation: our drinks menu does not rotate fast enough and we’ve sometimes ended up with a higher need for the waste part of the product than its primary expression which landed us in a sticky situation. 

So let’s dive into it - peach two ways: waste vs flesh.

First of all, let’s start by peeling our peaches and keeping the peels to the side. We will then chop them coarsly and keep the pits, covered in excess peach flesh. We will put those to the side along our peach peels.

We now have peach and pits on one side, and peach flesh on the other side. 

© Damien Guichard

First of all, let’s play with our peach flesh: 

We will process our peaches following a well-known method using pectinase / pectinex. As I’m sure you know by now, pectinex is used to break up the binding agent called pectin found in most common fruits. By breaking up the pectin, it helps increasing the yield and the clarification of fruit.

Throw your peaches into a food processor and add pectinex. For every kilo of fruit you will need 2g of pectinex. Bring heat to 37C for 20min and transfer into a coffee filter.

The first few millilitres will be a little cloudy so let the juice run through until it starts getting clearer. Once that’s the case, simply let it drip into a jug, and run your cloudy juice through the same filter.

After you’ve patiently waited for your juice to clarify, you will now be able to turn it into a cordial using my favourite ratio:

• 1/3 of sugar to juice
• 1% citric acid powder
• 1% malic acid powder
• Heat up at 45 C for 15min in a food processor.

Et voilà you now have a delicious peach cordial. Now put this to the side as we are about to make our… 

… Peach Waste Thingy Syrup

You have kept your peach peels and waste as instructed? Well done, now let’s use those to make more tasty beverages.

Simply mix equal part peach waste with sugar and water in a vacuum bag and vacuum the air out.

Then place your bag in a sous vide bath and cook at 55C for 3 hours, until everything has become soft and your sugar is dissolved.

Filtre through a coffee filter et voilà you now have a peach waste syrup!

That can only mean one thing… Two drinks! 

Peach Fuzz

Teaches of Peaches