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Dessert

Peach Cream

A chilled dessert made from mashed peaches, sugar, gelatin, cream, and nutmeg.

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

Peach Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peaches

  1. Mash the peaches.

  2. Mix the sugar into the mashed peaches.

  3. Set aside to chill on ice.

Make the cream

  1. Dissolve the gelatin in cold water.

  2. Whip the cream until fluffy.

  3. Grate the nutmeg.

  4. Combine the gelatin and whipped cream with the peach mixture.

  5. Stir the mixture thoroughly.

Mold and chill

  1. Pour the mixture into a mold.

  2. Pack the mold in ice for 1 hour.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Peach + nutmegtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together342 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Peach + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,308 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + nutmegtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23,364 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Sugar and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 23,364 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

Ripe peaches
Provide the main fruit flavor and body for the cream.
Sugar
Sweetens the peach mixture and balances its natural tartness.
Gelatine
Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when unmolded.
Cream
Adds richness and a light, airy texture when whipped.

The step that matters

Stirring the gelatine into the peach mixture. Gelatine must be fully dissolved and evenly mixed before chilling, otherwise it sets unevenly and leaves lumps or soft spots in the cream.

Swap the peach

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, nutmeg. 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.

More peach cream recipes

Pie 10Frozen 4Filling 3 See all 23 →

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