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Dessert

Preserved Fruits in Brandy

A preserve of various fruits soaked in brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Apricot and peach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 342 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Preserved Fruits in Brandy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and prepare the fruits by removing any stems or pits as necessary.

  2. Place the fruits in a clean jar.

Preserve

  1. Pour brandy over the fruits until they are fully submerged.

  2. Seal the jar tightly and store in a cool, dark place for at least a month before using.

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. Apricot + peachtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together342 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Apricot + plumtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together284 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

  4. Apricot + grapetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together477 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Plum + grapetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together238 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Apricots
Provide the main fruit flavour and sweetness that the brandy preserves.
Brandy (in the method)
Submerges the fruit, preserving it and adding alcohol-based aroma and flavour.

The step that matters

Keeping the fruit fully submerged in brandy. Fruit exposed above the liquid can spoil, since air and moisture encourage mould and fermentation. Keeping every piece covered helps the fruit stay sound while it matures in the sealed jar.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apricot, peach, plum, grape):

  1. Pearfits better
  2. Applefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apricot, peach, plum, grape. 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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