Why it works: Peach and milk work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 781 recipes. Both carry phellandrene, which smells minty. The science ↓
Kiss Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Assemble
Place half of the lady fingers or sponge cake in the bottom of a pudding pan.
If using lady fingers, separate them into halves.
Add a layer of peaches on top of the cake.
Add the remaining halves of the cake on top of the peaches.
Add another layer of peaches on top of the cake.
Make the custard
In a saucepan, combine milk, egg yolks, and cornstarch.
Cook the mixture until thickened.
Pour the custard over the peaches and cake.
Bake and serve
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 10 minutes.
Remove the pudding from the oven.
Top the pudding with a meringue made from the egg whites and sugar.
Return the pudding to the oven.
Brown the meringue lightly.
Serve the pudding cold.
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.
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Peach + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together781 recipes
Shared aroma: phellandrene (minty).
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Peach + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,308 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Lady fingers or sponge cake
- Forms the soft base layers that absorb the custard and hold the pudding together.
- Peaches
- Add moisture and fruit sweetness between the cake layers.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard that sets the pudding.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard through setting and add richness.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the milk mixture so the custard holds its body when cooked.
- Egg whites
- Whipped with sugar to form the meringue topping that browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Cooking the custard until thickened. Egg yolks and cornstarch only thicken when heated enough, but overheating can curdle the eggs. Stop once the custard coats a spoon so it sets smoothly when baked.
Swap the peach
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Raisinfits about as well
- Peachthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar. 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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