Why it works: Butter and milk 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).
Slice the peaches and place them in a pudding dish.
Add a small piece of butter.
Make the custard
In a saucepan, combine the egg yolks, corn starch, sweet milk, and sugar.
Heat the mixture until it comes to a boil.
Pour the mixture over the peaches in the dish.
Bake in the preheated oven until set.
Top and serve
Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.
Sweeten the beaten egg whites.
Pour the sweetened egg whites over the baked pudding.
Return the pudding to the oven and brown the top.
Serve warm or cold.
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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Butter + milktop 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).
-
Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
-
Peach + corntop 11% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together94 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Peach + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together860 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Peaches
- Provide the fruit base and their juices, which soften and sweeten during baking.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard and give it a rich, smooth texture as they set.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the milk mixture so the custard holds its body when boiled and baked.
- Sweet milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard, setting into a soft, tender texture.
- Egg whites
- Beaten to a stiff froth, they make a light meringue topping that browns in the oven.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and the meringue topping and helps the top brown.
The step that matters
Bake the custard until set. Heating the egg yolks gently and only until the custard sets keeps it smooth; overbaking makes the eggs curdle and turn grainy and watery.
Swap the peach
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, corn, milk, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Peachthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, corn, milk, sugar. 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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