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Dessert

Peach Jam

A sweet preserve made from ripe peaches, sugar, bitter almonds, topped with apple jelly and wrapped in brandy-dipped paper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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. Remove the stones from the peaches and mash them by hand.

  2. Place the mashed peaches in a preserving pan over medium heat.

  3. Cook the mashed peaches until soft.

  4. Rub the cooked peaches through a fine sieve.

Make the jam

  1. Boil the peach puree over high heat, stirring constantly for 15 minutes.

  2. Add the sugar to the puree.

  3. Continue boiling until it reaches the setting point.

  4. If desired, mix in the pounded bitter almonds while boiling.

Top and seal

  1. Once cooled, top with apple jelly.

  2. Cover with brandy-dipped paper.

  3. Secure the 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. Apple + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,291 recipes

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

  4. Peach + brandytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together339 recipes

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

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

Ripe peaches
Provide the fruit, pectin-bearing pulp and flavour that form the body of the jam.
Sugar
Sweetens the jam and, as it boils down, helps it set and preserves it.
Bitter almonds
Add a distinctive nutty, bitter aroma to the jam.

The step that matters

Boiling to the setting point. Boil the sugar and peach puree until it reaches the setting point. Too little boiling leaves the jam runny, while overboiling can make it dark and sticky as the sugar caramelises.

Swap the almond

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

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

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