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Sweet Pickled Peaches

Sweet pickled peaches are preserved in a sugar, vinegar, and spice syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Henrietta Latham Dwight · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Sweet Pickled Peaches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Select fine, fresh, ripe, but not soft peaches, peel and weigh them.

  2. Put the fruit in a stone jar.

Make the spiced syrup

  1. For every seven pounds of fruit, add five pounds of granulated sugar, a pint of vinegar, two tablespoonfuls of cinnamon, and one tablespoonful of cloves.

  2. Tie the spices up in a muslin bag and add a few pieces of stick cinnamon and a few allspice.

  3. Bring the sugar, vinegar, and spice mixture to a boil.

  4. Pour the boiling syrup over the peaches.

  5. Cover and let them stand until the next day.

Repeat and seal

  1. Scald the syrup again and pour over the fruit, repeating until done seven times.

  2. Take out the spice bag and put the fruit with the syrup into jars and seal.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

70Calories
0 gProtein
0 gFat
18 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Allspice1 tsp ground (1.9g)5
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Fruitnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Henrietta Latham Dwight. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Vinegar + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 (in the method)
The main fruit, which softens slightly and absorbs the sweet-sour syrup as it is repeatedly poured over it.
Granulated sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the fruit by drawing out moisture into the syrup.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the pickled fruit its sharp flavour and helps preserve it.
Cinnamon
Provides warm, aromatic spice flavour that infuses into the syrup and fruit.
Cloves
Contributes a strong, warm aroma and spiced flavour to the syrup.

The step that matters

Repeating the hot syrup pour seven times. Reheating the syrup and pouring it over the fruit each day gradually concentrates the sugar and lets flavour penetrate the flesh. Skipping or shortening the repeats leaves the fruit under-sweetened and less preserved.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cinnamon, vinegar, allspice):

  1. Clovethe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Cardamomfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon, vinegar, allspice. 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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