Name: Canned Peaches
Ingredients: 1 peck (about 32 peaches) large clingstone peaches; 3 pounds sugar; 1 pint vinegar; water (as needed)

Why it works: Sugar and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Canned Peaches

Ingredients

1 peck (about 32 peaches) large clingstone peaches
3 pounds sugar
1 pint vinegar
water (as needed)

Directions

Prepare

Pour boiling water over the peaches to remove the fuzz.

Make the syrup

Combine sugar and vinegar in a pot.
Add water if needed to cover the peaches.

Cook and can

Cook the peaches in the syrup until they are soft.
Can the peaches as you normally would.

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.

Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Peach + vinegartop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together348 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Peach + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked 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

Peaches: Provide the fruit, which softens during cooking to become tender in the jars.
Sugar: Sweetens the fruit and helps preserve its texture and flavor in the syrup.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and helps keep the canned fruit safe.