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Delmonico Pudding

A custard pudding baked with peaches and frosted with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and peach 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 ↓

Delmonico Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the custard

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Beat the egg yolks, then add the sugar and beat until very light.

  3. Mix the cornstarch with a little cold milk, add it to the egg and sugar mixture, then stir this into the hot milk.

  4. Add salt to taste and cook until it thickens.

  5. Pour into a serving dish.

Bake the base

  1. Bake in the oven until firm enough to support icing.

  2. Spread a layer of canned peaches over the top.

Top and brown

  1. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth, gradually adding the powdered sugar.

  2. Cover the peaches with the frosting.

  3. Brown in the oven.

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

    Shared aroma: phellandrene (minty).

  2. Sugar + peachtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,308 recipes

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

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Eggs
Yolks enrich and set the custard, while whites whip into a foam that forms the topping.
Cornstarch
Thickens the hot milk into a sliceable custard as it cooks.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that the cornstarch and eggs thicken.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps the egg yolks beat to a light, airy texture.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the meringue and helps it hold a smooth, stable froth for topping.
Canned peaches
Add fruit moisture and sweetness in a layer between the custard and the topping.

The step that matters

Cook until it thickens. Cornstarch only thickens fully when the mixture reaches a simmer and stays there briefly. Undercooked starch leaves the custard thin and gives it a raw, starchy taste.

Swap the peach

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

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

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