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Dessert

Peach Butter

Peach Butter is a sweet preserve made from peaches, sugar, peach kernels, cinnamon, and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Peach Butter

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Weigh the peaches after peeling and pitting them.

  2. Add 1 cup of sugar for every 1 cup of fruit.

Cook the butter

  1. Cook the peaches alone until soft.

  2. Add half of the sugar and stir frequently.

  3. After 30 minutes, add the remaining sugar.

  4. Stir almost constantly for 2 hours while boiling slowly.

  5. Add ¼ cup of peach kernels and spice with whole cinnamon and cloves.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Peach + cinnamontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together625 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Peach + clovetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together280 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Peaches
Provide the bulk, moisture and fruit flavour that cook down into the butter.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, as water evaporates, helps thicken the butter.
Peach kernels
Add a nutty, almond-like aroma to the fruit.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet aroma during the long simmer.
Cloves
Adds a pungent, warm aroma that deepens the flavour.

The step that matters

Stirring during the long simmer. As water evaporates, sugar and fruit concentrate and thicken, so the mixture can scorch on the bottom of the pan. Frequent stirring keeps it from sticking and burning while it reduces.

Swap the peach

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon, clove. 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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