Name: Stewed Peaches
Ingredients: Dried peaches; Sugar; Water (if needed)

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 ↓

Stewed Peaches

Ingredients

Dried peaches
Sugar
Water (if needed)

Directions

Place dried peaches in a pot.
Add enough water to cover the peaches slightly.
Cook over medium heat for about 30 minutes.
Stir in sugar to taste while cooking.
Add more water if needed to keep the peaches juicy.

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.

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

Dried peaches: Provide the main fruit flavour and soften into a tender, stewed texture as they cook.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the dried fruit.

“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.