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
Prepare
Pare and remove the stones from the white peaches.
Mix the peaches with an equal weight of sugar and let stand overnight.
Make the syrup
Drain off the syrup and bring it to a boil, skimming off any foam.
Add the peaches to the boiling syrup and cook slowly until tender.
Finish
Remove the peaches and continue boiling the syrup until it thickens.
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
- White peaches
- Provide the fruit flavour and the body of the preserves, softening as they cook.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and draws out its juice, then thickens the syrup as it concentrates.
The step that matters
Boiling the syrup until it thickens. Sugar sets as water evaporates and the syrup concentrates. Stopping too early leaves a runny preserve, while boiling too long can darken and scorch the sugar.
“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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