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 Preserves
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Make a syrup by combining the sugar and water in a pot.
Pour the hot syrup over the peaches.
Cook and rest the peaches
Bring the mixture to a boil and cook for 2 hours.
Transfer the peaches to a stone jar and let them stand for 15 hours.
Thicken and store
Pour off the syrup and boil it until thick.
Pour the thick syrup over the peaches while hot.
Cover the jar well and store in a cool place.
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
- Cling peaches
- Provide the fruit that softens and becomes tender as it cooks in syrup.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the preserves and, as it concentrates, helps set the syrup and preserve the fruit.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar to form the syrup that the peaches cook in.
The step that matters
Boil the syrup until thick. Boiling drives off water and concentrates the sugar so the syrup thickens. Syrup that is not reduced enough will stay thin and may not preserve the fruit well.
“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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