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Dessert

Peach Preserves

A sweet preserve made by cooking peaches with sugar and water until thickened.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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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 the peaches

  1. Peel the peaches.

  2. Cut them in half around the stone.

  3. Remove the pit.

Make the syrup

  1. Combine sugar with enough water to dissolve it in a preserving kettle.

  2. Boil the sugar mixture for a few moments.

  3. Skim off any foam.

Cook and jar

  1. Add the peaches to the boiling syrup.

  2. Cook rapidly.

  3. Skim off any scum.

  4. Cook until the peaches are clear.

  5. Remove them with a perforated skimmer.

  6. If the syrup is too thin, boil it until thick.

  7. Pour the thick syrup over the peaches in jars.

  8. Seal the jars 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. Peach + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Peaches
Provide the fruit that is cooked until clear and set in the preserve.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the preserve and thickens the syrup as it boils down.

The step that matters

Boil the syrup until thick. Sugar concentration determines whether the syrup sets. If it stays thin, the preserve will be runny. Boiling off water raises the sugar level enough for the syrup to thicken as it cools.

“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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