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To Brandy Peaches

Peaches are preserved in brandy after boiling in soda water and syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

To Brandy Peaches

Ingredients

Directions

Peel the peaches

  1. Dissolve 2 large tablespoons of baking soda in 1 gallon of water.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil in a preserving kettle.

  3. Weigh the peaches.

  4. Add three-fourths of the peaches to the boiling soda water and turn them until the skins rub off easily.

  5. Rub off the skins of the remaining peaches.

  6. Place the peaches in cold water.

  7. If the soda weakens, add more baking soda.

Make the syrup and scald

  1. Combine 1 pound of sugar, 1 pound of fruit, and 1 teacup of water to make a syrup.

  2. Add the peaches to the syrup and let them scald well.

  3. Remove the peaches from the syrup.

  4. Continue boiling the syrup until it thickens.

Jar and steep

  1. Place the cold peaches in jars.

  2. Cover the peaches with peach brandy and let the jars sit overnight.

  3. Pour off the brandy the next day.

  4. Mix the brandy with the syrup from the peaches and pour the mixture back over the peaches.

  5. If needed, add more brandy after a week or two as the juice dilutes it.

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. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

Sugar and brandy 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
The fruit that gives the dish its flavor and tender texture once scalded.
Baking soda
Alkaline soda water loosens the skins so they rub off easily.
Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and helps preserve the peaches.
Peach brandy
Adds alcohol and aroma and helps preserve the fruit.

The step that matters

Scalding the peaches in soda water. Peaches left too long in the boiling soda water can soften or overcook, while too little time leaves skins stuck. Watching until skins rub off easily keeps the flesh firm.

Swap the peach

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, brandy. 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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