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Brandy Peaches

Peaches preserved in a syrup of sugar and water, then soaked in whisky or brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Brandy Peaches

Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Brandy Peaches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peaches

  1. Peel and weigh the peaches.

  2. Add half the weight of the peaches in sugar.

Make the syrup and cook the peaches

  1. In a kettle, add just enough water to moisten the sugar and bring to a boil.

  2. Cook the peaches until you can pierce them to the seed with a straw.

  3. Remove the peaches and place them on dishes.

  4. Boil the syrup until it thickens.

  5. Let the syrup cool in a bowl.

Preserve

  1. Add 2 pints of whisky or brandy to 3 pints of syrup.

  2. Pour the mixture over the peaches in air-tight jars.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Peach + whiskytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Peach + syruptop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together210 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Whisky + syruptop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together84 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 is cooked and preserved in the syrup and spirit.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and, boiled into syrup, helps preserve the peaches.
Whisky or brandy
Adds alcohol that helps preserve the peaches and gives a spirited flavour.

The step that matters

Cook the peaches until you can pierce them to the seed with a straw. Cooking softens the fruit evenly so the syrup penetrates it; stopping too early leaves firm, under-infused peaches, while overcooking makes them break apart.

Swap the peach

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Applefits better
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, whisky, syrup. 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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