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Dessert

Pickled Peaches

Pickled peaches preserved in a spiced vinegar solution.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pickled Peaches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peaches

  1. Wipe peaches with a flannel until smooth, then insert a few cloves into each peach.

Make the pickle

  1. Scald vinegar and mix with sugar until dissolved.

  2. Pour vinegar mixture over peaches and boil until nearly soft.

  3. Remove peaches and boil vinegar a little longer.

  4. Pour hot vinegar back over peaches.

Brine and finish

  1. Place peaches in strong brine for 3–4 days, then remove and dry them.

  2. In a pot, combine peaches with allspice, pepper, ginger, and horseradish.

  3. Boil turmeric in vinegar and pour hot over peaches.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Allspice + horseradishtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together654 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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 softens and absorbs the sweet-sour pickling liquid.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Acidity preserves the fruit and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Cloves
Add warm, aromatic spice flavour that infuses the peaches.

The step that matters

Boil the peaches until nearly soft. Boiling in the vinegar syrup softens the fruit enough to take up the liquid without collapsing. Overcooking turns the peaches mushy, while undercooking leaves them firm and under-flavoured.

Swap the peach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, vinegar, clove, allspice, pepper, ginger, horseradish):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, clove, allspice, pepper, ginger, horseradish. 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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