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Chef John’s Peach Melba

See how to make an amazing peach melba with fresh raspberry sauce!

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and peach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 558 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

The recipe

6 servings
Prep15 min
Cook15 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Combine the raspberries, the smaller portion of sugar, one tablespoon of lemon juice, one tablespoon of water and the balsamic vinegar in a saucepan over medium heat. Simmer 5 minutes, mashing the berries until saucy.

  2. Press the raspberry mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl, discarding the seeds. Set the sauce aside to cool, then refrigerate.

  3. In a wide pan, combine the water, the larger portion of sugar and the remaining lemon juice. Scrape the seeds from the split vanilla bean into the pan, add the pod, and heat over medium, stirring until the sugar dissolves.

  4. Add the peach halves cut side down to the simmering syrup. Simmer gently 5 minutes, turning once, until a knife slides in easily. Remove the peaches and let cool slightly.

  5. Slip the skins off the peaches with a paring knife if they are loose. Refrigerate the peeled halves until serving.

  6. Toast the sliced almonds in a dry skillet over medium heat 2 to 3 minutes, stirring constantly, until golden. Transfer to a plate to cool.

  7. Place a scoop of vanilla ice cream in each serving dish. Top with a peach half, spoon raspberry sauce over the top, and sprinkle with toasted almonds. Serve immediately.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Vanilla + peachtop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together558 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,031 recipes

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

  3. Peach + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together466 recipes

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

  4. Vanilla + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together43,437 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,031 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, vinegar, vanilla, peach, cream, almond):

  1. Raspberrybetter flavor fit
  2. Strawberrybetter flavor fit
  3. Apricotbetter flavor fit
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, vanilla, peach, cream, almond. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).