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Peaches in Brandy

Peaches preserved in a brandy and powdered sugar syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Peach and brandy work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 339 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Peaches in Brandy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peaches

  1. Gather peaches before they are fully ripe and prick them with a large needle.

  2. Rub off the down with a piece of flannel.

  3. Carefully pass a quill around the stone to loosen it.

Poach the peaches

  1. Place peaches in a large pot and cover with cold water.

  2. Heat the water gradually until it is scalding hot, ensuring it does not boil.

  3. Once the peaches are tender, lift them out and wrap them in flannel or a soft cloth.

Steep in brandy

  1. Dissolve 10 ounces of powdered sugar in 1 quart of the best brandy.

  2. When the peaches are cool, place them in a glass jar and pour the brandy and sugar mixture over them.

  3. Cover the jar with leather or a bladder.

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 + brandytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together339 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

Brandy and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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 fruit flavor and tender flesh that softens during gentle poaching.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and helps dissolve into the brandy to form a syrup.
Brandy
Acts as the preserving liquid and carries the aroma and warmth of the fruit.

The step that matters

Heating the water gradually to scalding without boiling. Boiling can break down and split the soft peach flesh, while slow heating lets the fruit soften evenly and stay intact.

Swap the peach

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, sugar. 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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