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 the peaches
Dissolve 1 teaspoon of pearl-ash in 2-3 quarts of hot water.
Add a few peaches to the hot water for a few minutes.
Remove the peaches from the water.
Wipe off the skins with a coarse towel.
Place the peaches in cold water.
Make the syrup and cook
In a pot, combine half the sugar with just enough water to dissolve it.
Add a layer of peaches to the pot.
Boil for 20-30 minutes.
Remove the peaches from the pot and place them on a flat dish to cool.
Gradually add the remaining sugar to the cooled peaches.
Boil the syrup until thick.
Stir in ½ pint of alcohol.
Jar and set
Pour the syrup over the peaches in jars.
Do not cover until the next day.
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.
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Peach + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Cling-stone peaches
- Provide the fruit that is cooked and preserved in sugar syrup.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and, in the syrup, helps preserve it by drawing out water.
- Alcohol
- Adds aroma and helps keep the preserves from spoiling.
- Pearl-ash
- Alkaline solution that softens the peach skins so they can be wiped off.
The step that matters
Boiling the syrup until thick. Sugar must concentrate enough to set and preserve the fruit; syrup that is too thin may ferment or spoil, while overcooking can make it hard and caramelised.
“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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