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 ↓
Brandy Peaches
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the peaches
Rub the down off the peaches with a clean thick flannel.
Prick each peach down to the stone with a large silver fork and score along the seam.
Make the syrup and poach
In a porcelain kettle, mix the sugar with the water.
Heat the mixture until the sugar is melted, then boil and skim until no more scum rises.
Add the peaches and cook uncovered in the syrup for about 30 minutes, or until a straw penetrates them easily.
Remove the kettle from the heat and drain the peaches over the kettle using a wooden spoon.
Pack and seal
Mix the brandy with the syrup and boil together for 10 minutes.
Transfer the peaches to large glass jars, filling them two-thirds full.
Pour the brandy and syrup over the peaches, filling the jars to the top.
Once cool, cover the jars tightly and seal with bladder over the lids.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + brandytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together339 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,340 recipes
Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).
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Peach + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,308 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Provide the fruit, which softens and turns tender as it cooks in the syrup.
- Double-refined loaf sugar
- Forms the syrup that sweetens the fruit and helps preserve it.
- Best white brandy
- Adds alcohol that helps preserve the fruit and gives it a rich aroma.
- Egg white
- Clarifies the syrup by binding scum so it can be skimmed off.
The step that matters
Skimming the syrup after it boils. Skimming removes the scum that rises as sugar dissolves and boils, keeping the syrup clear and free of impurities that could spoil the preserve.
Swap the peach
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, brandy):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Apricotfits better
- Peachthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, 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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