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Peach Preserves

A method of preserving peaches in sugar syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Peach and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,308 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Peach Preserves

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pare the peaches and remove the pits.

  2. For each pound of peaches, use an equal weight of sugar and ½ cup of water.

  3. Boil the peach pits in water to extract flavor, then remove the pits.

Make the syrup

  1. Add water to replace what has evaporated, then stir in the sugar.

  2. Skim the mixture thoroughly.

Cook the peaches

  1. Add a small quantity of peaches at a time.

  2. Cook slowly for about 10 minutes.

  3. Transfer the peaches to a jar.

  4. Repeat the process with remaining peaches.

  5. Pour boiling syrup over the peaches.

Rest and seal

  1. The next day, drain the syrup.

  2. Boil the syrup again.

  3. Pour the syrup back over the peaches.

  4. Keep for 2 to 3 days.

  5. Seal the jars with paper as directed for jellies.

  6. If canning, the first boiling is sufficient.

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 + 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

Peaches
Provide the fruit that forms the body and flavor of the preserves.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and thickens the syrup as it cooks down, helping preserve the peaches.
Water
Dissolves the sugar into a syrup and replaces liquid lost to evaporation during cooking.
Peach pits
Boiled in water to release aroma and flavor into the syrup before being removed.

The step that matters

Add a small quantity of peaches at a time. Adding too many peaches at once cools the boiling syrup and slows its return to a boil, so the fruit cooks unevenly and can turn mushy.

“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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