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Peach Cordial

A peach cordial made by boiling peach kernels with sugar and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Peach and brandy work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 339 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Peach Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peaches

  1. Slice the peaches and crack the stones to add the kernels.

  2. Combine 1 pound of sugar with the sliced peaches.

Extract and cook the juice

  1. Set the mixture near the fire and periodically dip off the juice, pressing it with a spoon towards the end.

  2. Once all the juice is expressed, transfer it to a preserving kettle and bring it to a boil, skimming thoroughly.

  3. Let the mixture cool, then add 1 quart of brandy for each quart of peach syrup.

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 + brandytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together339 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Peaches
Provide the main fruit flavor and the juice that forms the syrup.
Loaf sugar
Draws juice out of the peaches and adds sweetness to the syrup.
Brandy
Preserves the cordial and adds alcohol-based warmth and aroma.

The step that matters

Skimming while boiling the juice. Boiling the extracted juice pulls foam and impurities to the surface. Removing them thoroughly keeps the syrup clear and clean-tasting before the brandy is added.

Swap the peach

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, brandy. 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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