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Dessert

Sweet Pickle Peaches

Peaches preserved in a sweet vinegar and spice syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 ↓

Sweet Pickle Peaches

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. In a large pot, combine 4 pounds of sugar and 1 quart of vinegar.

  2. Add 2 ounces of cloves and 2 ounces of cinnamon, then bring to a boil.

  3. Once boiling, add 8 pounds of peaches and heat through.

  4. Remove the peaches and let the syrup boil down until it thickens.

Pack and seal

  1. Pour the thickened syrup over the peaches and seal tightly.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Cinnamon + peachtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together625 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Clove + peachtop 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. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 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

Sugar
Provides sweetness and, as it thickens, body to the syrup that coats the peaches.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the pickle its sharp, tangy balance against the sweetness.
Peaches
Supply the fruit that softens in the spiced syrup and absorbs its flavour.
Cloves
Contribute a strong warm aroma that flavours the syrup.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm, sweet aroma to the spiced syrup.

The step that matters

Boil the syrup down until it thickens. Reducing the syrup concentrates its sugar and vinegar, so it thickens and coats the peaches. If it stays thin, the syrup is too watery to preserve well and does not cling to the fruit.

Swap the peach

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

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

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