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Peach Paste

A sweet paste made by cooking peaches with powdered sugar and drying the mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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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 Paste

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pulp

  1. Cook the fruit until tender.

  2. Press the cooked fruit through a sieve.

Make the paste

  1. Measure the pulp and add 1 pound of powdered sugar for each pound of pulp.

  2. Cook the mixture over low heat, stirring carefully to prevent scorching, until it begins to thicken.

  3. For the last part of cooking, use a double boiler to avoid scorching.

  4. Pour ½‑inch layers of the paste onto an oiled flat dish or tray.

Dry and shape

  1. Place the dish in a current of air and allow to dry for 2 to 3 days.

  2. Once dry, sprinkle with granulated sugar and form into a roll.

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 + 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
Provide the fruit pulp that forms the body and flavor of the paste.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the paste and, as it cooks down, helps it thicken and set into a firm mass.

The step that matters

Cooking the pulp and sugar over low heat. Sugar-rich fruit mixtures scorch easily on direct heat and the sugars can burn before the mixture thickens. Stirring carefully and finishing in a double boiler spreads heat gently and protects the flavor and color.

“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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