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Brandied Peaches

Preserved peaches simmered in brandy-infused syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Peach and brandy work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 339 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Brandied Peaches

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Make a syrup by boiling water and sugar until it reaches a boil, then skim off any foam.

Cook and jar the peaches

  1. Add enough peaches to cover the bottom of the pot and cook until tender and transparent, but not mushy.

  2. Remove the peaches with a skimmer and place them carefully in jars.

  3. Crack some peach pits and add them to the syrup, cooking for 15 minutes or until slightly thickened.

Finish and seal

  1. Add ¼ cup of brandy for each pound of fruit and remove from heat.

  2. Strain the hot syrup and pour it over the peaches in the jars, then seal immediately.

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 + brandytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together339 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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
Provide the fruit that becomes tender and flavorful as it cooks in the syrup.
Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and helps preserve the fruit's texture and flavor.
Brandy
Adds aroma and a warm, spirited flavor to the finished syrup.

The step that matters

Cook the peaches only until tender and transparent. Overcooking breaks down the fruit's cell walls, so the peaches turn mushy and lose their shape in the jars.

Swap the peach

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, brandy. 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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