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Peach Pudding

A layered cake and peach pudding with meringue and custard topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Peach and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 558 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Peach Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately cool oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Assemble the base

  1. Dip the cake slices in sherry.

  2. Layer the dipped cake slices in the bottom of a pudding dish.

  3. Fill the dish with peaches.

  4. Sprinkle sugar over the peaches.

Make the meringue and bake

  1. Beat the egg whites until light.

  2. Add 2 tablespoons of sugar to the beaten egg whites.

  3. Spread the meringue over the peaches.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until lightly browned on top.

Make the custard

  1. Heat the milk and ½ cup sugar in a saucepan until boiling.

  2. Stir the beaten egg yolks into the hot milk and sugar.

  3. Cook briefly, then remove from heat.

  4. Let the custard cool slightly.

  5. Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla to the custard.

  6. Serve the custard cold with the pudding.

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 + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together558 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Sherry + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Peach + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together781 recipes

    Shared aroma: phellandrene (minty).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
Egg whites whip into a meringue topping, and yolks thicken the custard.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, which sets as it cools.
Sugar
Sweetens the peaches, meringue and custard, and helps the meringue hold its structure.
Cake slices
Soak up the sherry and form the soft layer beneath the fruit.
Peaches
Provide moisture and fruity sweetness that soften the cake below.

The step that matters

Cook the custard briefly after adding the egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but overheating can scramble them and make the custard grainy. Cook gently and remove from heat once it thickens.

Swap the peach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sherry, sugar, egg, milk, vanilla):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Strawberryfits about as well
  3. Pineapplefits about as well
  4. Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sherry, sugar, egg, milk, vanilla. 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.

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