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Dessert

Peach Jam

A sweet preserve made from peaches, sugar, juice, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 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 ↓

Peach Jam

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Tie the spices in a cheesecloth bag.

  2. Prepare jars by sterilizing them.

Make the jam

  1. Combine peaches, sugar, and juice in a pot.

  2. Add the spice bag and cook over medium heat until the mixture thickens.

Jar and process

  1. Fill the jars with the hot jam, leaving some headspace.

  2. Seal the jars and process in a boiling water bath for 10 to 12 minutes.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 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. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Peaches
Provide the fruit base, flavor, and pectin-bearing pulp that forms the jam's body.
Sugar
Sweetens the jam and helps it thicken and set as it cooks down.
Juice
Adds liquid so the fruit can soften and cook evenly before thickening.
Cinnamon bark
Adds warm, aromatic flavor that infuses the jam during cooking.

The step that matters

Cook until the mixture thickens. Sugar and fruit pectin set only when enough water evaporates and the sugar concentration rises, so stopping early leaves a runny jam that may spoil in storage.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peach, sugar, cinnamon, allspice, clove, ginger. 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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