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Dessert

A Simple Dessert

A dessert of beaten egg whites sweetened with powdered sugar, folded with mashed peaches and raisins or dates, served with thick cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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A Simple Dessert

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

A Simple Dessert

Ingredients

Directions

Make the meringue

  1. Beat the egg whites into a very stiff froth.

  2. Gradually add the powdered sugar while beating for at least 15 minutes.

  3. Fold in the mashed peaches and the finely cut raisins or dates.

Serve

  1. Serve with thick 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  3. Peach + raisintop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + peachtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,308 recipes

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

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped into a stiff foam that gives the meringue its airy structure.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves into the whipped whites to stabilise the foam and add sweetness.
Fresh peaches
Add fruit flavour and moisture to the meringue.
Seedless raisins or dates
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture.

The step that matters

Beating the sugar in gradually. Adding sugar slowly while beating lets it dissolve fully into the foam, keeping the meringue glossy and stable. Adding it all at once can leave grainy sugar and a weaker, collapsing foam.

Swap the peach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, raisin, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Datesfits better
  4. Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, raisin, cream. 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 meringue recipes

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