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 the base
Line the bottom of a pudding dish with stale sponge or cup cake.
Shave enough peaches to cover the cake thickly, or use preserves or compote.
Sprinkle 1 cup of powdered sugar over the fruit.
Make the custard
Boil 1 pint of milk in a pot of boiling water.
Add 3 beaten egg yolks and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch mixed with a little cold milk to the boiling milk, stirring constantly.
Once thickened, pour the mixture over the fruit.
Top and bake
Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth, adding 1 tablespoon of sugar, and spread over the top.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for a few minutes to harden.
Serve cold, with or without 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.
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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).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and milk 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
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the milk into a smooth custard that sets when cooled.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the custard so it holds its shape when poured over the fruit.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to a stiff froth, they form a light topping that hardens in the oven.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the peaches and fruit layer.
- Milk
- Forms the body of the custard, giving it richness and softness.
The step that matters
Adding the egg yolks and cornstarch to the boiling milk. Stirring constantly keeps the egg proteins and starch from clumping or scrambling, so the custard thickens smoothly instead of turning grainy.
Swap the peach
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Raisinfits about as well
- Peachthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, egg. 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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