Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Peach Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the peaches
Fill a pudding dish with whole peeled peaches.
Pour 2 cups of water over the peaches.
Cover the dish closely.
Bake until the peaches are tender.
Drain off the juice from the peaches.
Make the batter
Let the juice cool.
Add 1 pint of sweet milk, 4 well beaten eggs, 1 cup of flour mixed with 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 1 cup of sugar, 1 tablespoon of melted butter, and a little salt to the juice. Beat the mixture thoroughly.
Pour the mixture over the peaches in the pudding dish.
Bake and serve
Bake until a rich brown.
Serve with cream.
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.
-
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Peach + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together781 recipes
Shared aroma: phellandrene (minty).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Peach + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together860 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
-
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Eggs
- Set the custard-like batter and add structure and richness as they cook.
- Flour
- Provides the body that holds the pudding together after baking.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the pudding rises and stays light.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and promotes browning on the top crust.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and richness, softening the batter into a custard-like texture.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
The step that matters
Bake until a rich brown. The top needs enough time for the eggs to set and the sugar and proteins to brown, but over-baking can make the pudding dry and rubbery. Watch the color and the set rather than the clock alone.
Swap the peach
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, flour, sugar, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Peachthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, flour, sugar, butter. 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.
More peach pudding recipes
You might also like
Peach Ice Cream64 recipes
Peach Fritters55 recipes
Peach Meringue40 recipes
Peach Ice16 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.