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Dessert

Peach Pudding

A baked peach pudding with a custard base, topped with meringue and served cold with cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

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 peaches and custard

  1. Stew the peaches in wine and sugar until soft.

  2. Beat the egg yolks with powdered sugar and lemon peel and juice.

Assemble

  1. Line a pudding dish with macaroons.

  2. Layer the stewed peaches in the dish, then pour in the beaten egg mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until slightly browned.

  2. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks, sweeten to taste, and spread over the pudding.

  3. Return to the oven until the top is light brown.

  4. Serve cold with 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.

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. Peach + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together947 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Peach + winetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together218 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  5. Peach + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,308 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

Freestone peaches
Provide the main fruit flavour and a soft, juicy layer under the custard.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard so it sets softly and gives the pudding its richness.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they form a light topping that browns in the oven.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the custard and dissolves smoothly into the beaten yolks.
Macaroons
Form a crisp, sweet base lining the dish under the fruit and custard.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites to stiff peaks. Whites that are under-whipped or greasy will not hold their shape and can deflate or weep in the oven. Clean, dry bowls and utensils help them reach full volume and a light, stable topping.

Swap the peach

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raspberryfits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wine, sugar, egg, lemon, 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.

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