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Dessert

Peach Pudding

A baked peach dessert with a buttery batter and sweetened cream topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Peach and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 558 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Peach Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Rub the butter into the flour mixed with baking powder and salt.

  2. Pare the peaches, cut them in half, and remove the stones.

Make the batter

  1. Mix the beaten egg with the milk and thicken with the prepared flour.

  2. Pour the mixture into a buttered baking pan.

Assemble and bake

  1. Arrange the peaches cut side up on top.

  2. Add a drop of vanilla and fill each peach with sugar, placing a bit of butter in the center.

  3. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until set.

  4. Serve hot with sweetened 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.

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 + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together558 recipes

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

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  5. Peach + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together781 recipes

    Shared aroma: phellandrene (minty).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Flour
Thickens the milk and egg mixture, giving the pudding its body and structure as it sets.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the pudding rise and turn light and tender.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set into a custard-like pudding when baked.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, forming the custard base with the egg.
Peaches
Provide fruit flavour and juiciness, softening and sweetening as they bake.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and tenderness in the flour and the finished pudding.

The step that matters

Thicken the milk and egg with the prepared flour. Adding flour to the egg and milk must be done smoothly so no lumps form. Starch thickens the liquid evenly and helps the pudding set firmly when baked.

Swap the peach

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

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

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