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Dessert

Peach Charlotte, a LA Française

A chilled dessert of peaches and peach marmalade served in a brioche-lined mold, topped with currant jelly and Noyeau.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Peach and currant work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Peach Charlotte, a LA Française

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Peel and quarter the peaches, removing the kernels from the stones.

  2. Combine the peaches and peach marmalade in a sauté pan.

  3. Warm over low heat until just heated through.

Assemble and serve

  1. Line a charlotte mold with brioche.

  2. Fill the mold with the peach mixture.

  3. When ready to serve, pour diluted currant jelly mixed with Noyeau around the base.

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 + curranttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Peach + briochetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15 recipes

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

  3. Brioche + curranttop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together13 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Peaches
Provide the main fruit flavor and soft, moist body of the filling.
Peach marmalade
Adds concentrated sweetness and body, helping the filling hold together when warmed.
Brioche
Forms the rich, sturdy outer lining that holds the filling's shape.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and gloss, and sets around the base as a glaze.

The step that matters

Warming the peach mixture. Heating over low heat only until just warm keeps the peaches from breaking down into a loose, watery mass that would soften the brioche and weaken the molded shape.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peach, brioche):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peach, brioche. 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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