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Peach Preserves

A sweet preserve made by layering peaches with sugar and water, then cooking and adding boiled stone kernels.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Peach and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,308 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Peach Preserves

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peaches

  1. Pare the peaches, cut them in halves, and remove the stones.

  2. Layer the peaches cut side up with sugar in a porcelain preserving kettle.

  3. Finish with a layer of sugar on top.

  4. Pour the water into the side of the kettle.

Make the kernel syrup

  1. Crack a quarter of the stones and remove the kernels from the cracked stones.

  2. Boil the kernels in 1 pint of water for 30 minutes.

  3. Strain the water.

  4. Add the strained water to the peaches.

Cook and rest

  1. Heat slowly for 1.5 hours.

  2. Heat the kettle until it reaches a boiling heat, but do not let it boil.

  3. Remove the kettle from heat, cover it, and let the mixture sit overnight.

Finish and can

  1. In the morning, heat until boiling hot, but do not boil.

  2. Use a skimmer to remove the peaches to large porcelain dishes.

  3. Boil the syrup long enough to skim it well.

  4. Return the peaches to the kettle.

  5. Set over a slow fire until the peaches look clear and are ready to be canned.

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 + 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

Free-stone peaches
Provide the fruit that softens and becomes clear as it cooks in syrup.
White granulated sugar
Draws out moisture and forms the thick syrup that preserves the fruit and gives sweetness.
Peach stone kernels
Add a subtle almond-like aroma to the syrup as they boil.

The step that matters

Heat without boiling. Sugar and fruit need slow, gentle heat so the peaches soften and clear without breaking apart. Boiling too hard can toughen the fruit and scorch the sugar on the bottom of the kettle.

“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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