Skip to main content
Dessert

Peach Charlotte, a LA Française

A chilled dessert of peaches and peach marmalade layered in brioche and served with currant jelly and Noyeau.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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. Cut the peaches into quarters and remove the skins and kernels.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the peaches and peach marmalade.

  3. Heat over low heat until the peaches are just warmed through.

Assemble and serve

  1. Line a charlotte mould with brioche.

  2. Fill the mould with the peach mixture.

  3. 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 fruit body and flavour of the filling, softened gently by warming.
Peach marmalade
Adds concentrated sweetness and peach flavour, and helps bind the fruit into a set filling.
Brioche
Forms the buttery, sturdy shell that holds the filling in the mould.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and a glossy, tart sauce when diluted and poured around the base.

The step that matters

Heating the peaches over low heat. Gentle heat warms the fruit just until tender without breaking it down into a watery mush. Overheating releases excess juice, which can make the filling loose and soak the brioche.

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.

You might also like

Red Currant JellyRed Currant Jelly65 recipesPeach Ice CreamPeach Ice Cream64 recipesPeach FrittersPeach Fritters55 recipesPeach MeringuePeach Meringue40 recipes