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 ↓
Candied Fruits
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the syrup
Boil the fruit in a thick syrup made with 1 cup of water and 1 pound of sugar until tender, but no longer.
Soak and dry
Let the fruit remain in the syrup for two days.
Remove the fruit, drain it, and sprinkle sugar over each piece separately.
Dry the fruit slowly in the sun or in an oven at 300°F (150°C).
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 + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Fruit
- Provides the main body and flavor that the sugar syrup penetrates and preserves.
- Sugar
- Draws water out of the fruit and forms a syrup that preserves it and gives it sweetness.
The step that matters
Boil the fruit only until tender. Overcooking breaks down the fruit's cell walls and makes it mushy, so it will not hold its shape through the long soak and drying.
“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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