How to make taogao 桃膏 (peach paste)

取五月桃汁、西瓜汁，一穰一絲漉盡，以文火煎至七八分，始攪糖細煉。桃膏如大紅琥珀，瓜膏可比金絲內糖。每酷暑，姬必手取其汁示潔，坐爐邊靜看火候成膏，不使焦枯。分濃淡為數種，此尤異色異味也。

[Dong Xiaowan] extracted juice from peaches and watermelons of the fifth month, filtered out all the pulp and fibres, gently simmered the juice until it is reduced to seven or eight tenths [of its original volume], and then stirred in sugar and slowly concentrated [the mixture] on low heat. Her peach paste was like bright red amber, and her melon paste comparable to a golden-thread confection. Every time in the height of summer, she extracted juice with her own hands to ensure cleanliness and sat by the stove to keep an eye on the fire and wait for the juice to thicken while watching out for burning. She made several types of paste, distinguished by intensity: these had extraordinary colours and tastes indeed. [1]

* From Mao Xiang 冒襄 (1611-1693), Yingmeian yiyu 影梅庵憶語 (Taipei: Shijie shuju, 1947), 3.14.

[1] The phrase yi se yi wei 異色異味 could also be understood as “different colours have different tastes” or “one colour, one taste”.

• 

• 

• 

First peach harvest this year and various jams made from it; also "one colour, one taste" but less labour-intensive than Dong Xiaowan's method, thanks to modern inventions like the food blender and quick gelling agents

Left to right: peach with whiskey, peach with basil, peach + apple, peach + plum + apple, peach + plum