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Dessert

Peach Jam

A fruit preserve made from peaches, sugar, and bitter almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Peach and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 466 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Peach Jam

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mash the peeled and pitted peaches in a pan over medium heat until hot.

  2. Rub the mixture through a sieve to obtain the pulp.

  3. Add the sugar and pounded almonds to the pulp.

  4. Boil the mixture for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring frequently and skimming off any foam.

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 + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Peach + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,308 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Peaches
Provide the fruit pulp that forms the jam's body and main flavor.
White sugar
Sweetens the jam and, as it cooks down, helps it thicken and keep.
Bitter almonds
Add a distinct almond aroma that complements the peach flavor.

The step that matters

Boiling and skimming. Boiling concentrates the pulp and sugar so the jam thickens, but it must be stirred to keep it from scorching on the bottom of the pan. Skimming removes foam so the jam looks clear and tastes clean.

“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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