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Dessert

Peach Leche Crema

A baked peach dessert with a milk-based custard and meringue topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 Leche Crema

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the custard

  1. Scald the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the cornstarch mixed with a little cold milk and cook, stirring, until it thickens.

  3. Remove from heat and beat in the melted butter, then the egg yolks and powdered sugar. Whisk until light and creamy.

Assemble and bake

  1. Drain the syrup from the peaches and place them in the bottom of a bake dish.

  2. Pour the mixture gently over the peaches.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 10 minutes.

  4. Spread the meringue made from the whipped egg whites over the top.

  5. Return to the oven until the meringue is slightly browned.

  6. Serve warm with sauce or 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: phellandrene (minty).

  3. Peach + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together860 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 add richness and a smooth set.
Egg whites
Whipped into meringue to create a light, airy topping that browns.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk mixture as it cooks, giving the custard body.
Milk
Forms the base of the custard, which sets when baked.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the custard and dissolves smoothly into the mixture.
Peaches
Provide fruit flavour and moisture beneath the custard.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard until it thickens. Cornstarch must be stirred over heat until it thickens, because it only gels once the starch granules swell fully. Undercooked starch leaves the custard thin and runny after baking.

Swap the peach

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, 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.

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