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Dessert

Brandied Fruit

A preserved fruit dish made with pears, peaches, plums, apples, brandy, sugar, and pickling syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pear and plum match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 245 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Brandied Fruit

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the fruit by peeling and slicing as needed.

  2. Optionally, soak the prepared fruit in brandy for several hours before cooking.

Make the syrup

  1. Cook the pickling syrup, then add brandy and sugar.

  2. Cook the syrup down to form a heavy consistency.

Cook and seal

  1. Combine the fruit with the brandied syrup and cook until tender.

  2. Place the fruit in jars and pour the syrup over it, then seal.

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. Pear + plumtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Pear + appletop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together649 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  3. Peach + plumtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together163 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Pear + peachtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together114 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Plum + appletop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together404 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Pears
Firm fruit that holds its shape and adds body after cooking.
Peaches
Soft, sweet fruit that softens and adds moisture to the syrup.
Plums
Adds tartness and juice that balances the sweetness of the syrup.
Apples
Firm fruit that holds shape and adds pectin to help the syrup thicken.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavor and helps preserve the fruit.
Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and helps it thicken as it cooks down.

The step that matters

Cook the syrup down to a heavy consistency. If the syrup is not reduced enough it will be thin and watery, while over-reducing makes it too thick and sticky. Watching the syrup closely gives a rich coating that clings to the fruit.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Apricotfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Applethe original
  4. Figfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pear, peach, plum, brandy, sugar, syrup. 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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