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Dessert

Peach Jam

A sweet preserve made from ripe peaches, bitter almonds, powdered sugar, and apple jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Peach and apple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 303 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Peach Jam

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peaches

  1. Stone the peaches.

  2. Bruise the peaches.

  3. Place the peaches in a preserving pan.

  4. Boil the peaches.

  5. Mash the peaches while stirring until they are soft.

  6. Pass the mashed peaches through a large sieve.

Make the jam

  1. Pound the bitter almonds with powdered sugar to prevent them from oiling.

  2. Use ½ ounce of almonds for every pound of jam.

  3. Combine the jam and almonds in a pot.

  4. Boil the mixture for 15 minutes.

  5. Add 10 ounces of powdered sugar for every pound of jam. Mix well.

  6. Boil for an additional 30 minutes. Stir constantly.

Pot and finish

  1. Transfer the jam to pots or pans.

  2. Let it cool.

  3. Top with apple jelly.

  4. Cover with brandy paper.

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. Peach + appletop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together303 recipes

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

  2. Peach + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together466 recipes

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

  3. Almond + appletop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,025 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Ripe peaches
Provide the fruit base that cooks down into the jam's body and flavor.
Bitter almonds
Add a distinct bitter, aromatic almond flavor that balances the sweetness.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the jam and helps preserve it by binding water and thickening the mixture.
Apple jelly
Adds pectin and sweetness to help the jam set and finish the top layer.

The step that matters

Boil for an additional 30 minutes while stirring constantly. Sugar and fruit thicken as water evaporates, and the mixture can scorch or stick to the pan near the bottom. Constant stirring spreads heat evenly and prevents burning, which would spoil the flavor and color of the jam.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Hazelnutfits less well
  4. Beansfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against peach, sugar, apple. 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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