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Dessert

Spiced Peaches

Peaches preserved in a spiced vinegar-sugar syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Spiced Peaches

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine sugar and vinegar in a large pot.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Add spices tied in thin muslin bags to the boiling mixture.

  4. Carefully add the peaches and cook for a few minutes.

Pickle over five mornings

  1. Remove the peaches and place them in a stone jar.

  2. Pour the syrup over the peaches.

  3. For five mornings, drain off the syrup, heat the syrup, and pour it back over the peaches.

  4. On the last morning, cook the syrup until it reaches your desired richness.

  5. Pour the final syrup over the peaches.

  6. Cover the jar tightly with muslin, cotton batting, and heavy paper.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Peach + cinnamontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together625 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Peach + clovetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together280 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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 slightly in the hot syrup and absorbs its flavour.
Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and, as it thickens on cooking, preserves the fruit.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the sweetness and helps preserve the fruit.
Stick cinnamon
Adds warm aroma to the syrup as it steeps into the fruit.

The step that matters

Cooking the syrup on the last morning. Sugar syrup thickens as water evaporates and it becomes more concentrated, so cooking it too little leaves a thin syrup, while cooking it too long over-thickens and can crystallise. Judge by the desired richness, checking as it reduces.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

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