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To Pickle Peaches

A method for preserving peaches by pickling them in a vinegar and sugar solution with cloves and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 ↓

To Pickle Peaches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peaches

  1. Wash the peaches and remove the down with a brush.

  2. Stick 5 or 6 cloves into each peach.

Make the spiced vinegar

  1. Heat the vinegar.

  2. Add the sugar.

  3. Boil.

  4. Skim the boiling mixture.

Pickle and pack

  1. Pour the boiling hot vinegar over the peaches and cover them.

  2. Set the peaches in a cool place for 8 to 10 days.

  3. Drain off the vinegar.

  4. Heat the drained vinegar again.

  5. Skim the heated vinegar.

  6. Pour the heated vinegar over the peaches.

  7. Let the peaches cool.

  8. Pack the peaches into glass jars.

  9. Seal the jars as for preserves.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
Main fruit that softens and absorbs the sweet-sour pickling liquid.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and sharpens the pickling liquid.
Brown sugar
Balances the vinegar's sharpness with sweetness and helps form the syrup.
Whole cloves
Add warm, aromatic spice flavor that infuses into the peaches.
Cinnamon
Adds warm aromatic spice flavor to the pickling syrup.

The step that matters

Pouring the boiling vinegar over the peaches. The vinegar must be boiling hot when poured so the fruit heats through and the acid can work evenly. Re-heating and re-pouring the drained vinegar helps the brine stay hot enough to preserve the fruit.

Swap the peach

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Quincefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Peachthe original

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