Skip to main content
Dessert

Preserved Peaches

Peaches preserved in a sugar syrup with peach stone kernels and brandy paper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Preserved Peaches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the kernel water

  1. Crack the peach stones and extract the kernels.

  2. Boil the kernels in enough water to cover them until soft, then steep in a covered vessel.

Cook the peaches

  1. Layer sugar and peaches in a kettle, starting with sugar.

  2. Warm slowly until the sugar melts and the fruit is hot.

  3. Strain the kernel water and add it to the kettle.

  4. Boil until the peaches are tender and clear.

  5. Remove peaches with a skimmer and place on large flat dishes, crowding them as little as possible.

  6. Boil the syrup until clear and thick, skimming off any scum.

Jar and seal

  1. Fill jars two-thirds with peaches, pour on boiling syrup, and cover with brandy tissue-paper, cloth, and thick paper tied 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

Sugar
Forms the thick syrup that preserves the peaches and gives them sweetness.
Peaches
Provide the fruit, which softens and turns clear as it cooks in the syrup.
Peach stones
Kernels are steeped in water to add a subtle almond-like aroma to the syrup.

The step that matters

Boil the syrup until clear and thick, skimming off any scum. Sugar concentration must be high enough to preserve the fruit; skimming removes impurities that would otherwise cloud the syrup and spoil the preserve.

“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.

You might also like

Peach Ice CreamPeach Ice Cream64 recipesPeach FrittersPeach Fritters55 recipesPeach MeringuePeach Meringue40 recipesPeach IcePeach Ice16 recipes