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Dessert

Preserved Peaches

A method of preserving peaches in a sugar syrup with egg white or isinglass.

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 ↓

Preserved Peaches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peaches

  1. Cut the peaches longitudinally to the stone, then twist to remove the stone.

  2. Peel the peaches.

  3. Weigh the peaches.

  4. For each pound of fruit, weigh out a pound of sugar.

Make the syrup

  1. Add ½ cup of water.

  2. Let the sugar dissolve completely before heating.

  3. Add the beaten egg white or dissolved isinglass to the sugar mixture.

  4. Bring the syrup to a boil.

  5. Skim off any scum that rises.

  6. Once the scum stops rising, remove the syrup from heat.

  7. Wash the kettle.

  8. Return the syrup to the kettle.

Cook and preserve

  1. Add the peaches.

  2. Boil for about 1 hour and 15 minutes until translucent.

  3. Carefully remove the peaches.

  4. Place them on dishes.

  5. Let the syrup cool to lukewarm.

  6. Pour it over the peaches in 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.

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).

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Peach + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,048 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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 until translucent and packed in syrup.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and, dissolved into syrup, helps preserve it.
Egg white or isinglass
Clarifies the syrup by binding scum, which is skimmed off as it rises.

The step that matters

Skim the scum before the syrup boils. Scum that rises during heating carries impurities that cloud the syrup. Removing it while the syrup is still heating keeps the syrup clear and the peaches looking translucent.

Swap the peach

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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