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Peach Melba

A frozen custard dessert topped with sliced peaches or pears and raspberry sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Peach and raspberry match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 190 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Peach Melba

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the custard

  1. Prepare the custard by heating 1 pint of milk and whisking in 5 egg yolks and vanilla essence until combined.

  2. Chill the custard in a freezing machine until it becomes ice.

Make the raspberry syrup

  1. Pass a small jar of raspberry jam through a fine sieve.

  2. Mix the sieved jam with a small bottle of raspberry syrup until thick.

Assemble and serve

  1. Once frozen, scoop the ice into a deep dish.

  2. Slice peaches or pears and arrange them on top of the ice.

  3. Pour the raspberry syrup over the peaches or pears and serve.

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. Peach + raspberrytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together190 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Vanilla + peachtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together558 recipes

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

  3. Vanilla + raspberrytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together950 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).

  4. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  5. Milk + peachtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together781 recipes

    Shared aroma: phellandrene (minty).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and give it a rich, smooth texture when chilled.
Milk
Forms the base of the custard, providing moisture and creaminess.
Raspberry jam
Adds concentrated raspberry flavour and sweetness to the sauce.
Peaches or pears
Provide fresh, juicy fruit flavour and contrast with the cold custard.

The step that matters

Chill the custard until frozen. Egg yolks and milk must be cooked into a smooth custard before freezing, and freezing slowly in a machine keeps the ice cream texture fine. Under-chilled custard stays runny, while over-freezing makes it hard and icy.

Swap the raspberry

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, vanilla, peach, syrup):

  1. Apricotfits about as well
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Raspberrythe original
  4. Blueberryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, vanilla, peach, syrup. 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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