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Dessert

Peach Cabinet Pudding

A peach custard pudding made with gelatin, egg yolks, and brandy, chilled to set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,209 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Peach Cabinet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peaches

  1. Drain the peaches, cut them into quarters, sprinkle with powdered sugar, and pour Sherry and brandy over them.

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, make a custard by heating milk, egg yolks, sugar, and salt.

  2. Just before removing from heat, add gelatin soaked in cold water.

  3. Strain the custard and, when slightly cooled, stir in the liquor drained from the peaches.

  4. Stir until the mixture begins to thicken, then fold in the beaten egg whites.

Set and serve

  1. Line a mold with the peaches, pour in the custard, and chill until set.

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. Sherry + brandytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Wine + brandytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,427 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: phellandrene (minty).

  4. Peach + sherrytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together48 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Peach + brandytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together339 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Enrich the custard and help it thicken as it heats.
Egg whites
Beaten and folded in to lighten the custard's texture.
Gelatine
Sets the custard so it holds its shape when chilled.
Peaches
Provide fruit flavor and moisture as the main filling.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and adds richness.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the peaches and draws out their juices.

The step that matters

Adding the gelatin just before removing the custard from heat. Gelatin needs to be fully dissolved and evenly distributed in the warm custard. If it is added too early it can be overheated and lose setting power, and if added too late it may not mix in, leaving the pudding unevenly set.

Swap the peach

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Applefits about as well
  4. Peachthe original

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