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 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Line a dish with quartered peaches and sprinkle 3 tablespoons of sugar over them.
Make the custard
In a saucepan, combine 1 pint of milk, 2 tablespoons of cornstarch, and 3 egg yolks with 1 cup of sugar to make a boiled custard.
Pour half of the custard over the peaches, then add another layer of peaches and sugar, followed by the rest of the custard.
Bake and serve
Beat the egg whites until frothy, then flavor with lemon extract and spread over the top of the custard.
Bake in the oven until the top is browned.
Serve the custard hot over the peaches.
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 + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together947 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Peach + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,308 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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 custard and add richness to its texture.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the milk mixture so the custard sets smoothly.
- Egg whites
- Whip into a light topping that puffs and browns in the oven.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard.
- Peaches
- Provide fruit flavor and moisture beneath the custard.
The step that matters
Boiled custard. Cornstarch must be fully heated and stirred while combined with the egg yolks so it thickens. Undercooked starch leaves the custard thin, and overheated egg yolks can curdle.
Swap the peach
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, egg, lemon):
- Vanillafits better
- Orangefits better
- Figfits about as well
- Peachthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, egg, lemon. 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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