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 ↓
Brandied Peaches
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the peaches
Prepare a strong lye solution that is hot but not boiling.
Submerge half a dozen peaches in the lye for 4 minutes.
Transfer the peaches to cold water.
Repeat steps 2 and 3 until all peaches are processed.
Rub the peaches with a coarse towel until smooth.
Place the peaches in another vessel of cold water.
Remove the peaches from the water.
Dry the peaches.
Make the syrup
In a pot, combine the sugar with 2 pints of water and the egg white to make a syrup.
Skim the syrup until it is perfectly clear.
Place the peaches in the syrup.
Boil the peaches until a straw can pass through them.
Let the peaches cool.
Boil the syrup for 30 minutes.
Add the hot brandy to the syrup and mix thoroughly.
Pack and store
Pack the peaches into glass jars.
Pour the hot syrup over the peaches in the jars.
Once cooled, cover the jars with paper to protect them.
Allow the jars to sit for 3 months before using.
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 + brandytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together339 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Brandy + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,340 recipes
Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).
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Peach + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,308 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- The fruit that is softened, sweetened and flavoured by the syrup and brandy.
- Loaf sugar
- Makes the sweet syrup that preserves the peaches and gives them body.
- White brandy
- Adds alcohol and aroma, helping preserve the fruit and flavour the syrup.
- Egg white
- Binds impurities in the syrup so they can be skimmed off, leaving it clear.
The step that matters
Boil the peaches until a straw can pass through them. Boiling softens the flesh so it is tender throughout, but overcooking can break the fruit apart. Checking for straw-level softness helps keep peaches whole and evenly cooked.
Swap the peach
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, brandy, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Apricotfits better
- Peachthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, brandy, 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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