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Pickled Peaches

Pickled peaches are preserved in a vinegar and sugar syrup with cloves and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Peach and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 280 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Pickled Peaches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peaches

  1. Rub the skins of the peaches with a flannel cloth to avoid bruising.

  2. Add 3 cloves and spices to each peach.

Cook and pack

  1. In a pot, combine vinegar and ½ pound of sugar; bring to a boil.

  2. Add the peaches and boil until tender.

  3. Carefully place the peaches in glass jars.

  4. Boil additional sugar with some water to create a syrup.

  5. Pour the syrup over the peaches in the 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 + clovetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together280 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  3. Clove + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Peach + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together348 recipes

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

  5. 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

Peaches
Provide the fruit that softens and becomes tender during boiling in the vinegar syrup.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that preserves the fruit and balances its sweetness.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the pickling liquid and syrup and helps preserve the fruit.
Cloves
Add a warm, aromatic spice flavor that penetrates the fruit.

The step that matters

Boil the peaches until tender. Boiling too briefly leaves the fruit firm and under-flavoured, while overboiling breaks it down and makes it mushy. Peaches should be cooked just until a knife or skewer passes through easily, so they keep their shape in the jars.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Peppermintfits better
  3. Gingerfits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peach, vinegar, sugar. 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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