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Dessert

Peach Butter

A sweet preserve made by stewing peaches with water, mashing, sweetening, and thickening until rich.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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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 ↓

Peach Butter

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Peel the peaches and remove the stones.

  2. Place the peaches in a preserving kettle with a little water.

  3. Stew until tender.

  4. Drain off the liquid.

  5. Mash the fruit in a clean preserving kettle.

Cook and jar

  1. Sweeten the mashed fruit to taste.

  2. Boil the mixture until very thick and rich in color. Stir constantly to prevent burning.

  3. Seal while hot in sterilized 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 + 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 bulk of the butter and its fruit flavor and natural pectin for thickening.
Sugar
Sweetens the butter and helps it thicken and darken as moisture evaporates.

The step that matters

Boil until very thick, stirring constantly. Sugary fruit scorches easily on the bottom of the pan as water evaporates and sugars concentrate. Constant stirring prevents burning and gives an even texture and deep colour as the butter thickens.

“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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