Standardization of recipes for preparation of sweet pickle from peach, Prunus persica (L) Batsch fruit

Peach, Prunus persica (L) Batsch is one of the most important stone fruit grown throughout the world. In the present study peach fruits (cv July Elberta) were evaluated for the preparation of sweet pickle in order to see their suitability and consumer acceptability. For standardization of recipes various combinations of sugar, salt along with fixed quantity of citric acid, acetic acid and spice extracts were tried. End products (pickle) were further packed in pre-sterlized glass jars for storage studies of 90 days under ambient conditions (18 to 28°C). Among various treatments (T₀, T₁, T₂ T₃ and T₄) sweet peach pickle prepared with 5.50 per cent salt and 60^oB TSS of syrup (T₁) combination was found to be the best followed by pickle with 6.50 per cent salt and 55^oB TSS of syrup (T₂). It was also concluded from storage studies of 90 days that peach pickle with treatment T₁ obtained best scores for the organoleptic quality parameters like colour (7.30), flavour (7.50), texture (7.40) and overall acceptability (7.50) followed by treatment T₂ whereas pickle with treatment T₀ (control) was found to be least acceptable on the basis of sensory evaluation.