Skip to main content
Dessert

Peae, Peach and Apple Pudding

A baked custard pudding with pears, peaches, and apples stewed with spices and sweetened cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Peae, Peach and Apple Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fruit

  1. Peel and core the pears, then cut them into pieces.

  2. Place the pears in a saucepan with cloves and lemon or orange peel.

  3. Add 2 cups of water and stew for about 15 minutes.

  4. Transfer the pears to a pudding dish.

Make the custard

  1. In a bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together.

  2. Add the flour and grated nutmeg, mixing well.

  3. Gradually stir in the cream or milk while mixing continuously.

  4. Pour the custard over the pears.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until set.

  2. Serve cold with sweetened cream.

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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Pear + clovetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together512 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard and give the pudding its structure as they cook.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and richness, making the custard soft and smooth.
Flour
Thickens the custard slightly so it holds together when set.
Pears
Provide the main fruit flavour and soft, moist body under the custard.

The step that matters

Gradually stir in the cream or milk. Adding liquid slowly while mixing keeps the flour and eggs evenly blended, so the custard sets smooth rather than lumpy.

Swap the pear

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, lemon, cream, egg, sugar, flour, nutmeg):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Pearthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, lemon, cream, egg, sugar, flour, nutmeg. 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.

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipesLemon CustardLemon Custard64 recipes