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Brandy Peaches

Preserved peaches cooked in a sugar syrup with brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Brandy Peaches

Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Brandy Peaches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peaches

  1. Dissolve baking soda in a pail of water and bring to a boil.

  2. Boil peaches for 5-7 minutes to loosen skins, then transfer to cold water.

  3. Rub off skins with a coarse towel and keep peaches in cold water to prevent discoloration.

Make the syrup and cook

  1. Make a syrup with ¾ pound sugar and 1 pint of water, skimming well.

  2. Add peaches to syrup and cook slowly until easily pricked with a fork.

Jar and seal

  1. Transfer peaches to jars, add half the quantity of brandy to the syrup, stir, and pour over peaches.

  2. Seal jars tightly and let cool.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

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

  4. Peach + syruptop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together210 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Peaches
Provide the fruit, which softens and turns tender during slow cooking in syrup.
Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and helps preserve the fruit's texture and flavor.
Pale brandy
Adds aroma and flavor to the syrup, and its alcohol helps preserve the fruit.
Baking soda
Raises the water's alkalinity so the peach skins loosen more easily when boiled.

The step that matters

Rub off skins with a coarse towel. Keeping peaches in cold water afterward prevents discoloration, since cut or bruised fruit flesh browns when exposed to air and heat. Work gently so the flesh stays intact.

Swap the peach

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, syrup, 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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