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Dessert

Spiced Peaches

A preserve of peaches simmered in a syrup of sugar, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spiced Peaches

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil sugar and vinegar together for about 10 minutes to make syrup.

Cook the peaches

  1. Add enough peeled peaches to cover the bottom of the kettle and cook gently until a broom straw pierces them easily.

  2. Carefully skim the peaches out and place them on a platter.

  3. Repeat with the remaining fruit.

  4. Drain the juice, return it to the kettle, boil, and skim off the froth.

Jar and rest

  1. Place the peaches in a stone jar, pour the hot syrup over them, and tie the spices in a bag on top.

  2. Cover closely and after a week, pour off the juice, boil it, and pour it hot over the peaches.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 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 that softens and absorbs the spiced syrup.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and helps preserve it in the syrup.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and helps preserve the fruit.
Stick cinnamon
Contributes warm aroma to the syrup as it steeps.

The step that matters

Cooking the peaches until a broom straw pierces them easily. Cooking gently until the fruit is just tender lets it absorb syrup without breaking apart. Overcooking makes peaches mushy, while undercooking leaves them firm and less able to take up the syrup.

Swap the peach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cider, vinegar, cinnamon, clove, allspice, nutmeg):

  1. Applefits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cider, vinegar, cinnamon, clove, allspice, nutmeg. 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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