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 ↓
Canned Peaches
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the peaches
Select ripe, firm peaches and avoid clingstones.
Pare and halve the peaches, removing the stones.
Drop the peaches into cold water to prevent discoloration.
Make the syrup and cook
In a saucepan, combine 1 cup of water and 2 tablespoons of sugar for each quart of fruit.
Bring the mixture to a boil.
Drain the peaches from the cold water and add them to the hot syrup.
Cook slowly for 15 to 20 minutes, or until tender.
Can
Can according to standard canning directions.
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.
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Peach + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Peaches
- Provide the fruit itself; firmness and ripeness determine how well they hold their shape during cooking.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the syrup and adds body, balancing the tartness of the fruit.
- Water
- Forms the syrup that carries heat and sugar evenly around the peaches.
The step that matters
Drop the peaches into cold water. Cut peach flesh browns quickly when exposed to air because of enzymatic oxidation. Cold water slows this reaction and keeps the fruit pale until it goes into the syrup.
“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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