Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Peach Dessert
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 the peaches
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Fill a pudding dish with whole peeled peaches and pour 2 cups of water over them.
Cover closely and bake until the peaches are tender.
Drain the juice and let it cool.
Make and bake the pudding
In a bowl, combine the cooled juice with 1 pint of sweet milk, 4 beaten eggs, 1 small cup of flour mixed with 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 1 cup of sugar, 1 tablespoon of melted butter, and a little salt. Beat well and pour the mixture over the peaches.
Bake until brown and serve with cream.
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.
-
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Peach + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together781 recipes
Shared aroma: phellandrene (minty).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Peach + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together860 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
-
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Bind the batter and set into a custard-like structure as they cook.
- Flour
- Provides body so the batter becomes a spoonable pudding rather than a liquid.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the pudding rise and become light.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps the top take on browning.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and richness, making the batter tender and creamy.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender crumb.
The step that matters
Cover closely and bake the peaches until tender. The peaches must soften fully before the batter goes on, since they will not finish cooking in the custard. Covering traps steam so they cook evenly without drying out.
Swap the peach
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, flour, sugar, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Peachthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, flour, sugar, butter. 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 pudding recipes
You might also like
Peach Ice Cream64 recipes
Peach Fritters55 recipes
Peach Meringue40 recipes
Peach Ice16 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.