Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Peach 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.
Prepare the peaches
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Fill a pudding dish with whole, peeled peaches and pour 2 cups of water over them.
Cover the dish closely and bake until the peaches are tender.
Drain the peaches and let the juice cool.
Make and bake the pudding
In a bowl, combine the cooled juice, 2 cups of milk, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 4 beaten eggs, 1 cup of sugar, 1 small cup of flour, ¼ teaspoon of salt, and 1 tablespoon of melted butter. Beat well.
Pour the mixture over the peaches and bake until brown.
Serve with cream.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Peach + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together781 recipes
Shared aroma: phellandrene (minty).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Peach + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together860 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Bind the batter and set into a custard-like structure as they cook.
- Flour
- Provides body and structure so the batter holds together while baking.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the pudding rises and becomes lighter.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and richness to the batter, softening the crumb.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.
- Peaches
- Supply the fruit flavor and moisture that soften during the first bake.
The step that matters
Baking the peaches until tender before adding the batter. Peaches that are not fully softened before the batter goes on will stay firm and uneven, since the batter bakes only briefly around them. Draining and cooling the juice also keeps the batter from thinning or curdling when the eggs and milk are added.
Swap the peach
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, sugar, flour, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Peachthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar, flour, butter. 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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