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 ↓
Peach 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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Fill a baking dish about three-fourths full with the prepared peaches.
Make the batter
In a bowl, beat the yolks of the eggs.
Add 4 tablespoons of sugar, 3 tablespoons of milk or cream, and 3 tablespoons of flour to the egg yolks and mix well.
Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.
Assemble and bake
Sprinkle 3 tablespoons of sugar over the peaches.
Pour the batter over the peaches and mix gently.
Bake for 45 minutes until golden.
Serve hot with sauce.
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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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Peach + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,308 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Yolks enrich the batter, while whipped whites lighten it and help it set as it bakes.
- Peaches
- Provide the fruit base and moisture that the batter bakes around.
- Flour
- Gives the batter structure so it sets into a pudding rather than staying liquid.
- Milk or cream
- Adds moisture and richness to the batter.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the batter and the peaches, and helps the top brown.
The step that matters
Gently fold in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites trap air that gives the pudding its lift. Stirring or mixing hard after folding them in knocks that air out, leaving a dense, flat result.
Swap the peach
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, milk, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Peachthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, milk, flour. 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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