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Dessert

Sweet Pickle Peaches

A preserved peach dish made by cooking peaches with sugar, vinegar, spices, and optional water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Sweet Pickle Peaches

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Fill and seal

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Fill jars with peaches, leaving room for two more peaches and juice.

  3. In a pitcher, combine peaches and sugar, then pour into the jars until overflowing.

  4. Screw the covers on tightly and place the jars in the oven.

  5. If desired, add a tablespoon of water to each jar before filling to help dissolve sugar.

Cook

  1. Cook for 2 hours, but if necessary, jars can remain in the oven for up to 4 hours without damage.

  2. For added flavor, include a little vinegar and a muslin bag of spices in each jar.

Store

  1. Store the jars in a cool place after cooking.

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. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  2. Peach + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together348 recipes

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

  3. 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

Peaches
Make up the fruit that is cooked and preserved in the jars.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the fruit.
Vinegar
Adds acidity and a sharp, tangy flavor.
Spices
Add aroma and flavor to the peaches through the muslin bag.

The step that matters

Screw the covers on tightly. Tight lids keep air out and juice in during the long time in the oven, which helps the jars hold their contents safely.

Swap the peach

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Pineapplefits about as well
  4. Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar. 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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