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Dessert

Compote of Peaches

A compote of peaches served over sponge cake with plain cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Compote of Peaches

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 ↓

Compote of Peaches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peaches

  1. Cut peeled peaches in half and place them in a saucepan.

  2. Sprinkle sugar over the peaches and heat them through in their own juice.

Make the syrup

  1. In a small bowl, moisten corn starch with cold water, then add lemon juice and the lightly whipped egg.

  2. Mix the corn starch mixture into the syrup from the peaches and heat gently until it bubbles.

  3. Allow the syrup to cool slightly, then pour it over the peaches.

Assemble and serve

  1. Place the peaches on squares of sponge cake, hollow side up.

  2. Refrigerate until ready to serve with plain 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Corn + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,927 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 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

Corn starch
Thickens the peach syrup as it heats and bubbles, giving it body.
Egg
Adds richness and helps thicken and bind the syrup mixture.
Sugar
Sweetens the peaches and draws out their juice to form the syrup.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the peaches.
Sponge cake
Provides a soft base that soaks up the syrup under the peaches.

The step that matters

Heating the syrup after adding the corn starch mixture. Corn starch thickens only when it reaches a bubble, but the egg can curdle if overheated. Heating gently until it just bubbles thickens the syrup without scrambling the egg.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, corn, egg, 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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