- [Announcer] This program was funded in part by The Forest at Duke, a retirement community in the heart of Durham, North Carolina.

With more than 350 residents, The Forest at Duke presents residents with ongoing opportunities to keep growing.

[upbeat music] Coming up, on "The Key Ingredient."

- [Sheri] Everything is just peachy, as we delve into one of summer's tastiest delights, fresh peaches.

We make quick-and-easy peach sorbet, and a fabulous peach salad that looks like a work of art.

I don't know what sunshine smells like, but I bet it's like this dressing.

Come along for the ride with my good pal, Bill Smith and me as we gallivant across the Sandhills, visiting roadside peach stands.

- Okay, this is the most famous peach I have, Winblo.

- [Sheri] Legendary southern baker, Cheryl Day gives us an expert lesson in making her delectable peach hand pies.

- [Cheryl] Oh, I'm gonna take this juicy bite.

- [Sheri] Holy Moses.

That's next.

I'm Sheri Castle.

I write cookbooks.

I write for food magazines.

I cook, I teach, and I collect stories.

And my favorite stories are the ones behind our best-loved home recipes.

That smells good.

You think bears are gonna come?

- Probably out here.

- [Sheri] Oh, that's awesome.

I will go out and explore from the ground up.

The best ingredients that go into some of our most beloved family recipes.

It's all about the food, the flavors, and finding "The Key Ingredient."

[upbeat music] - For many of us, a vacation road trip to the beach must include a stop at a roadside stand to pick up a basket of fresh, fragrant, juicy peaches.

Today I'm bringing Bill Smith, a legendary southern chef and my dear pal, along for the ride.

I was so tickled that you agreed to go on this adventure with me.

- I was very flattered to be invited.

- Well, of course.

You know we've had some good car trips over the years.

- We have been.

We've got a history.

- We do.

We do indeed.

We'll see when we get down to these peach places.

I'm hearing that this is gonna be a gangbuster year for peaches, because we didn't get that late freeze we often get.

- [Bill] There was no frost.

I know.

- So here is my plan.

We're gonna go to a million peach stands.

I've brought a basket, I've brought us some money and I have brought an open mind.

We're gonna see what they've got.

How's that sound to you?

- You're the boss.

- All right.

You ready?

- Ready.

- Alright, let's do it.

[upbeat music] [traffic noises] Hey, you must be Jan. - I am.

- I'm Sheri.

So good to see you.

- Nice to meet you Sheri.

- This is my dear friend Bill Smith.

- Hi, Bill.

- Hi, Bill Smith.

How you doing?

My Pleasure.

- So this is one of the most famous, well-known, beloved peach stands.

How long have you guys been here?

- We've been here since 1985.

- And were you growing peaches before that?

- Yes.

I grew up on a peach farm.

- You've got how many acres of peaches?

- We have 40 acres.

- 40 acres.

And you know, there's more than one kind of peach, which a lot of people never realized.

How many do you guys grow?

- We have about 40 different varieties.

- Really?

Really?

- And you have have the different varieties.

'cause each variety only lasts a week to 10 days.

- So you do 'em sequentially.

So you've always got fresh peaches.

- Yeah, we do samples.

Over here.

- Oh gosh.

Let's go do samples.

- Okay.

- You got me on that one.

[upbeat music] - This was my dad's favorite peach.

Was his name Norman by any chance?

- No, it wasn't.

But he just liked this taste of this one.

- Wow.

- It's the Yellow Freestone then we got a White Carolina Bell.

- You know, my family always had a thing about white peaches maybe 'cause they were hard to come by.

- Used to make soup out of them.

- This is the most famous peach I have Winblo.

- Winblo.

- [Bill] Winblo.

- [Jan] Everybody calls for those the whole summer.

- This is the one people call up about.

- That's just a nice classic peach.

Not too sweet, not too tart.

- This is Harvester.

This is my first free stone we get in the season.

- Look at the color on this.

It's like a sunset.

- What is it called?

- Harvester?

- Harvester, there we go.

- Mm.

Ooh, I like that too.

- Which one do you wanna choose?

- Oh gosh.

Oh gosh.

- Or a mixture of two of 'em.

- I think a mixture of the two.

And you know what I've learned?

Is let the person growing the peaches pick out the peaches.

Go eat ice cream while I'm working on it.

- Alright, we got a plan.

[upbeat music] [soft acoustic music] - Hey.

- Hello.

How are you?

- I'm good.

I'm Sheri.

- And I'm Steven.

- Nice to meet you Steven.

This is my dear friend Bill.

- Hey, Bill.

How you doing?

- Steve?

- My partner in crime on things.

- Bill Smith.

How you doing?

- And this is my father Chester Greene.

- Hello sir.

- Hey, good to see you.

- Good to see you.

So how y'all been in the peach business.

How long you been?

- I started January 1st, 1961.

- And what made you to do that?

- I grew up on my uncle's farm, you know, helping him and so forth and when I was 16 years old, I supervised getting the whole peach crop picked.

- Yeah?

- At 16 years old.

- I see you've got peach things like pie and ice cream.

How did that come to be?

- He makes peach pies every night.

My younger daughter makes cobblers every night.

- Individual cobblers.

- And she brings them here and she sells the individual cobbler for the folks.

And then she'll put a scoop of ice cream on top of it.

- Oh, my goodness.

If this is not service.

- [Bill] Thank you.

- Service with a smile.

- [Bill] Oh man, look at that.

- I feel like I ought to take a picture of myself.

- So is this an old family recipe?

- Yes.

That is, that was my mother's recipe.

- Really?

- Where she got it.

I don't know.

- Well, I'm glad she didn't let it get gone.

'cause this is delicious.

- It is good.

It's good.

- So much peach.

Not too much bread.

Thank y'all so much.

- No, this has been really fun.

Fun to meet you guys.

- There is no better place to get something than from the people that grow it, 'cause they have the most pride and the most knowledge.

And you corroborated that and I thank you so much.

- Yes ma'am.

Thank you.

[soft acoustic music] - So today I am making an incredible fresh peach sorbet.

Yes, sorbet.

Now I'm gonna start making it and then I'm gonna tell you why I picked this recipe.

[soft acoustic music] One of the basic ingredients in a sorbet, which is a dairy-free, frozen fruit dessert, is a sugar syrup.

And all that is is sugar and good old water that I'm going to stir together and cook until it comes to a boil.

And that sugar dissolves.

And the beauty of this is that the sweetness will be smooth and you won't have little gritty sugar bits in your delicious sorbet.

Alright, so when my dear friend Bill Smith and I were riding around picking out peaches, we both were sharing memories of making peach ice cream when we were kids.

There is nobody in this world that's gonna argue that peach ice cream is good.

But nobody in this world is gonna argue that it can be a whole lot of trouble to make.

With peach sorbet, all you need is a bowl and the freezer in your refrigerator.

It is so much easier and it is the essence of peachiness.

Now I'm gonna keep stirring and I'm gonna let it come to a boil and then I'm gonna pour this in a bowl so that it can cool off.

But I promise you, boiling water, a little sugar, you're on your way.

[soft jazzy music] So my sugar syrup is all cool.

And I'm gonna add a few more things to build flavor and build the good texture in the sorbet.

The first thing is a little bit of white corn syrup.

Now, corn syrup, it's not for the sweetness, it's because it minimizes crystallization to give us that smoothness, as does this next ingredient.

This is peach schnapps, which is a liqueur that is intensely peachy flavored.

But that tiny bit of alcohol controls how our sorbet freezes.

And again, it's gonna give us a great texture.

Now for balancing the flavor of the fruit, I've got a touch of fresh lemon juice and a fairly decent pinch of salt.

And now we have the perfect syrup and all that's missing are our peaches.

[soft jazzy music] And now I'm gonna finish this up.

Now you'll notice I have my handy-dandy blender, which is gonna make quick work of this.

All I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take about half of my peaches.

Now these are frozen peaches and I like using frozen, because it makes the sorbet set up more quickly.

And these can be peaches you've frozen or a really high quality store-bought frozen peach and there's some great ones out there.

And this is approximately half of that gorgeous sugar syrup that we made earlier.

Pop on the lid and turn on my machine.

[motor whirring] Now when you've got about half of it done, you put in the rest.

Pour our syrup in and let it go.

Now because these peaches are frozen, you're gonna have a soft-serve consistency to your sorbet right away, that you may wanna eat it just like that.

But in a second I'm gonna show you what you do to get it scoopable.

[motor whirring] And I want you to let this go until you can see no little bits of those peaches.

You really want this to be a completely smooth puree.

And I think that's what I've got.

And so what I have here is an icy cold, glass baking dish.

Now the reason I'm using something of this size is I want this to be nice and shallow, because the more shallow it is, the more quickly it's going to freeze.

Look how easy that is.

You don't even really have to smooth it out.

So once it's in here, all you need to do is cover it with a tight fitting lid.

And you're gonna stash this in the freezer.

Even after a couple of hours, it will have firmed up enough that you can start making spoonfuls.

But if you want beautiful, scoopable servings, let this stick in the freezer, maybe even overnight.

It'll be worth the wait.

[soft bouncy music] And now my wait is over.

It is time to dig into this sorbet.

Got myself my little scoop here.

And look how beautiful this does.

It just rakes right up.

Not too hard, not too soft.

Just beautiful bits of sorbet.

Now you don't need to thing other than a spoon for this.

But I gotta show you this wonderful little trick that I do when I wanna make this even more special.

This is condiment-grade balsamic vinegar.

It's thick, it's syrupy, it's aged a little bit.

And just a tiny little drizzle of this gorgeous, fruity, beautiful balsamic is the best thing with peaches.

My goodness, beats whipped cream.

Mm-mm.

This is so good.

This is the peachiest peach thing you are ever gonna make.

It's so easy.

It stays in your freezer, makes an instant treat.

You really do need to make this and you need to eat this.

You really do.

[soft bouncy music fading] [jazz bass music] You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who knows more about Southern baking than my friend, Cheryl Day.

She's an expert cook, a clever teacher, a bestselling cookbook author.

And as fun as can be.

It's a joy to welcome her into my kitchen to share one of her favorite peach recipes.

My friend, I have dreamed of this day for years and years.

- [laughing] Years.

- Yes.

Now I remember exactly when we met.

We, being food people, were on our way in pursuit of a good meal.

- And we sat next to each other - Always.

- And talked and talked.

And we've been talking ever since, haven't we?

- About food.

- About food.

- And here we are.

- And here we are.

And I hear, there's rumor, you're gonna teach me how to make your famous peach hand pies.

- I am.

- So I see you've got our pretties laid out here.

Our peaches, gorgeous peaches.

Now I noticed they're not peeled.

- And you know.

- Thank you for noticing that.

- Yeah, tell me your approach to when to peel and not to peel.

- So actually my approach now is not to peel.

- Okay.

- Easy peasy.

I'm a not-peel girl, because I love the color and I don't know, have you noticed that peaches don't seem to be as fuzzy.

They don't seem to have that fuzzy skin.

- They've done something.

Exactly.

So what, what good stuff do we put in here?

- So we've got our peaches, but we can go ahead and put our sugar in.

- [Sheri] Just light brown sugar.

- Yep.

Light brown sugar.

And we'll give that a little toss and then we will add in the flour.

- Now do you always thicken pie filling with flour?

Or do you let the fruit tell you what it needs?

- I let the fruit tell me what it needs, Sheri.

All right.

So now I'm just looking at it and to me just, I feel like the next thing this needs is lemon juice.

- All right.

- So, we'll add that in and then we're going to add bourbon.

- Amen.

The affinity of peach and bourbon is just- - [Cheryl] It's so good.

- It's is.

It is.

It's perfect.

- So we'll get that tossed in.

And then we've got salt, because you always need salt, even with sweet things, it brings out the flavor.

And so then we've got our lemon zest.

I love to play with spices.

So cardamom is something- - One of my favorite spices.

- Is that one of yours too?

- I think that people don't love cardamom like they should.

- [whispering] I love it.

- And I always say, if you don't know when to try it, replace cinnamon with cardamom once and see how it works out for ya.

- Absolutely.

Oh my goodness.

Like an apple pie.

- Right.

- I just love it.

And then lastly, we've got some nutmeg.

So you can see where the juices are coming out.

It's starting to, you know, the flour is doing its job.

Gonna thicken it just a little bit, because we still want 'em to be juicy in our hand pies.

But that's our filling.

So this is perfect.

So this is ready.

- Okay.

[calypso style music] So I see pastry, you're amazing pie crust pastry, right?

- Yes.

- Is it an all butter?

- It is.

And you know, sometimes people are afraid of doing the all butter.

I have mixed, I've done lard, I've done all kinds, but this is my favorite.

We're gonna fill 'em up.

If you could pass me that egg and then I will make our little egg wash. - You need a whisk?

- I do need a little whisk.

- And egg wash. What's the purpose of that?

- So this style of egg wash is for the way that it looks.

Basically, it's going to also brown it, but it's gonna give it like a nice little sheen to it.

So now we've got our filling.

It's nice and juicy.

So I'm gonna, you do wanna put some of that juice in there.

You know, you don't want it to be too full.

- You gotta direct me here.

- Just kinda eyeball it.

- About that like that?

- Yeah, that looks great.

And then we'll put that in the center and then I'm gonna steal this little brush.

I'm gonna just do a little on the side.

- [Sheri] So that's gonna be glue.

In addition to that look, that's gonna be our glue - [Cheryl] Yeah.

Exactly.

- [Sheri] That holds our pastry together.

- [Cheryl] It'll be our glue.

You can also do water.

So we're gonna just fold this in a triangle.

- All right, just fold that over here.

Make our edges.

- And then just kind of pull your edge where you have enough space and that looks perfect.

And then we will just kind of seal that up.

- Should I use a fork, my fingers?

Or does it matter?

- I like to use a fork because you know, with pie dough you don't wanna futz with it.

So that's that.

So I think we should finish these up.

- Okay.

Well would you look at that?

All folded, all crimped, what comes next?

- So next, if you can hand me that little fancy little tool.

- I love those things.

- I have a collection of these.

I just love them.

- And they're called pastry wheels, right?

- Yeah, it's a pastry wheel.

And so what we're gonna do is just kind of trim that edge right there.

And it seems like a a quick, easy thing to do, but what it does, Sheri, is that edge will kind of flake up.

- Oo.

- It'll kind of do a little fly up on the edge and it just looks really pretty.

- [Sheri] I love that.

- The final flourish is we're going to egg wash, just lightly egg wash the tops.

- [Sheri] The very same one that we use for the little glue around the edges.

- [Cheryl] Same one.

Same one.

And then I'll let you, very liberally, we're gonna do the demerara sugar.

- I love this raw crunchy sugar, because not only does it add sweetness, it adds that crunch.

- It does and it looks so pretty too.

- Love this stuff - And isn't that, you know, eating with your... and then I'll let you finish up that edge and then what we'll do is get these on our pan.

- Okay, I'm learning so much.

This is great.

- It's all set.

- And we get rewarded by pie in a few minutes.

- I mean, that's the best part.

Truly.

- Exactly.

[light music] Look at these.

Look at these.

- We did that.

- There's the edge you promised.

- [Cheryl] Look at that little flake.

- [Sheri] Mm, just a little cheese bubbling.

- Right there.

Oh, I'm ready.

- You know, let's eat these by hand.

They're hand pie for Pete's sake.

- They're hand pies.

Yeah, absolutely.

- Look at this color though.

I mean they are truly beautiful.

And that's what you get from a well-made crust.

- I mean look at that.

- It's gonna hold in here.

It's gonna hold the filling.

- [Cheryl] It's flaky, buttery.

- [Sheri] And our peaches.

- And you can see how that juice just jelled up and set just perfectly.

Oh, I'm gonna take this juicy bite first.

Should we go for it?

- Uh-huh.

- Talk about flaky.

- Holy Moses.

- See all that?

- You got peaches, you've got that little hint of lemon.

Can I have one for both hands?

If I eat this one can I reload and have one in both hands.

[both laughing] Cheryl, my goodness.

You know, like I said, I've waited for years- to have you over - That came out perfect.

so we could cook together.

- It was worth it.

- It is.

And now we're gonna do it again.

- Cheers.

- Cheers, my friend.

To peaches.

- Peaches.

- Thank you, friend.

[upbeat music fading] So today I'm going to be making a peach salad that is like a platter of summertime, all on one good spot.

[upbeat acoustic music] And I'm gonna start with the dressing that goes on top.

And the star of the dressing is fresh basil.

There is no herb.

I love more with peaches.

And you're gonna want a lot of basil.

Two big handfuls.

I'm gonna put them on the bottom.

Now there's not a lot of oil in this dressing.

I'm gonna let the herbs and the other ingredients do the heavy lifting.

But I do need a little bit of oil just to smooth out the flavors and give this dressing some body.

So that was a very fruity, light olive oil.

And then I'm gonna put in a whole lot of honey.

I actually call this dressing a honey lemonade, 'cause I want people to get some expectation of the sweetness.

Now you can't have honey lemonade without the lemon.

And I'm getting that in two different ways.

A whole lot of fresh zest.

This is the zest of a whole lemon and then I have the juice of that lemon.

[light acoustic music] For a little bit of heat, a little bit of balance and a little bit more acidity, I have a green jalapeno hot sauce.

It's not fiery hot.

There's a little gentle heat, but there's almost a citrus quality to it that's gonna balance this out.

And I'm gonna put a little salt and a little pepper and then we're gonna let our little machine do the work here.

[motor pulsing] And this is what I want.

So what I've done is I've let the liquid do its job, but I want some of those beautiful, bright green juicy bits of that basil to still shine through.

So let me transfer this into a jar so you can see what I'm talking about.

Look at this, it is so beautiful.

And the aroma on this, that bright lemon, that basil, I don't know what sunshine smells like, but I bet it's a little bit like this dressing.

And there you have it, so quick, so easy, so beautiful and delicious.

This is our basil lemonade dressing for our peaches.

You know when I'm making a big platter of salad like this and I wonder what might go with what, I let mother nature give me my starting point.

There's an old adage that what grows together goes together.

And that is the premise for a lot of these ingredients.

I'm gonna start arranging these beautiful ingredients on a platter.

This is called a composed or an arranged salad, because you're just gonna put everything on the platter.

Look at these juicy, gorgeous peaches.

I'm gonna spread 'em around and then start putting some other things.

Tomatoes.

If you've never had the delightful combination of ripe, juicy, garden-fresh, sun-ripened tomatoes and peaches, you have missed out.

And this salad will be a revelation to you.

Look at these green ones.

This is a ripe tomato with this great green color, but you can even use an under-ripe green tomato.

And that little bit of tang is so good with the peaches.

Now the next thing I'm gonna add are some sugar snap peas.

I love their crunch.

I love their color.

Now let your peas tell you what they need.

If they need a little bit of blanching and shocking in hot water and then ice water, do that.

But if they are good enough to crunch raw, you can skip that step.

Same thing with this sweet corn.

Sweet corn and peaches are about as much of an under-sung hero as peaches and tomatoes.

If your corn is freshly picked and freshly shucked and so juicy that you want to eat it raw, then that's what you should do.

You should eat it raw.

If it needs a tiny bit of cooking, don't cook it till it is tender.

Cook it just until it loses its rawness, because you know, if you decide that you wanna pick up a couple of the ingredients and put 'em back on top, this is your little palette here.

I want you to play with this until it looks just like what you want.

I've got a little bit of avocado and I'm gonna fan out these slices just a little bit and tuck that around.

And next comes fresh mozzarella.

You're gonna find this, it often comes packed in some whey, and look what you do.

Just rip it, pull it into long strands.

It's creamy, it's rich, but yet light.

So easy, so beautiful.

We're almost at the finish line.

This is shallot, which is kind of a mild onion-y thing.

And then for crunch, these are Marcona almonds.

They're just a really good kind of almond.

Alright, I've got everything on here except a little bit more basil.

And we get that final little burst of freshness.

Plenty of good salt and pepper.

And when I'm doing a salad like this, I use a crunchy salt, a finishing salt, like a flake or a coarse one.

It is gonna give you a little crunch when you take a bite and it doesn't dissolve when it hits the juicy tomatoes and peaches.

It is the perfect kind of salt to put on this.

Now here's our dressing, our great basil lemonade from earlier.

You can do two things with it.

I like to put a little bit on at the time and then serve the rest at the table so people can doctor up their a bit of salad in a way that makes them happy.

Isn't this a fun and amazing way to serve peaches and all of these other things?

But you take this to the table, people are gonna say nice things about you and all you did was decorate with what mother nature gave you.

[soft music fading] [upbeat music] So let's talk about peeling peaches.

One day, a handy little tool came into my life called a serrated peeler.

It's just like a standard vegetable peeler, but they're a little bitty teeth that are exactly what we need to make that peach skin slip right off.

It is so easy.

And before you know it, you have worked through your entire bowl full of peaches.

Now, in a lot of recipes where you're going to cook the peaches, you don't have to worry about them darkening, what we call oxidizing, because that's gonna cook away or it won't matter.

But what if you need to head that off anyhow?

Got a great trick for that too.

The tiny bubbles in this bowl is club soda.

Club soda is neutral and all you need to do is to let your peaches hang out in the club soda for a few minutes and then drain it out and put them in some sort of container that you can store them in the refrigerator for a couple of days.

Guess what?

At the end, your club soda has picked up that peach flavor and you are rewarded for your cleverness by being able to drink peach-infused club soda.

Isn't that something?

[upbeat music ending] I have such a treat for you.

These are peach hand pies.

Grab one.

You ready?

- Let's have at it?

- Yeah.

Mm.

- Oh, these are wonderful.

I tell you, - This has been one of the best peach weeks of my life.

- It's like everything's perfect.

- I love you, daddy.

- Alright, thank you.

[soft upbeat music] [upbeat music] - [Announcer] This program was funded in part by The Forest at Duke, a retirement community in the heart of Durham, North Carolina.

With more than 350 residents, The Forest at Duke, presents residents with ongoing opportunities to keep growing.

[upbeat music]