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Peaches in Brandy

Peaches preserved in brandy and syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Syrup and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Peaches in Brandy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peaches

  1. Prick the peaches with copper pins and wash them in cold water.

  2. Place the peaches in stone jars and pour over hot syrup at 25°.

Steep and reboil

  1. After twelve hours, drain the syrup and reboil it at 26°.

  2. Leave the peaches in the syrup for three days, then bottle them, covering with liquor.

Finish and rest

  1. Add proof spirit and sugar syrup, coloring slightly with lemon yellow.

  2. Cover the jars with parchment paper tied around the neck and leave for twelve days.

  3. Re-fill the jars to the top and seal airtight.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Peach + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together947 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Syrup + spirittop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together141 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Peach + spirittop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together33 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Peach + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Medium ripe yellow peaches
Provide the fruit that softens and flavours the preserve as it steeps.
Hot syrup (25°)
Sweetens the fruit and draws moisture out during the initial soak.
Proof spirit (4 quarts)
Adds alcohol that preserves the peaches and gives them a boozy flavour.
Sugar syrup (32°)
Adds sweetness and body to the finished liquid around the peaches.

The step that matters

Reboiling the syrup at the stated temperature. Heating the syrup again after draining concentrates its sugar and helps it penetrate the fruit. Overheating or skipping the reboil changes the sweetness and how well the peaches keep.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peach, syrup, spirit, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peach, syrup, spirit, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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