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Dessert

Peach Jam

A jam made from ripe peaches, pounded loaf sugar, and bitter almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Peach and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 466 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Peach Jam

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peaches

  1. Peel and stone the peaches.

  2. Mash the peaches in a preserving pan over heat until hot.

  3. Rub the mashed peaches through a sieve.

Make the jam

  1. For every pound of pulp, add an equal weight of pounded loaf sugar and ½ ounce of blanched, pounded bitter almonds.

  2. Boil the mixture for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring and skimming well.

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 + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  3. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Ripe peaches
Provide the fruit pulp that forms the body and flavour of the jam.
Pounded loaf sugar
Sweetens the jam and helps it thicken and set as it boils.
Bitter almonds
Add a distinct almond aroma that complements the peach flavour.

The step that matters

Boiling the mixture. Boiling must be long enough and stirred steadily, because sugar and fruit pectin need sustained heat to set properly, while stirring prevents scorching on the base of the pan.

“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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