Why it works: Milk and peach work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 781 recipes. Both carry phellandrene, which smells minty. The science ↓
Prince of Wales Charlotte
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Assemble
Layer thick slices of delicate cake in a deep pudding dish.
Pour hot boiled custard made from 3 egg yolks and 1 pint of milk, sweetened and flavored to taste, over the cake.
Let it sit for several hours before serving.
Top and brown
Just before serving, add a layer of sliced peaches or oranges over the cake.
Beat the egg whites with a little sugar until stiff, then spread over the fruit.
Place in a 400°F (200°C) oven for a few minutes to brown.
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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Milk + peachtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together781 recipes
Shared aroma: phellandrene (minty).
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Sugar + peachtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,308 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Delicate cake
- Forms the base layer that soaks up the custard and holds the dish's structure.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the milk into a custard that sets softly and enriches the texture.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard, giving moisture and a soft set.
- Egg whites
- Whipped with sugar, they form a stiff meringue topping that browns in the oven.
- Peaches or oranges
- Add fruity sweetness and acidity that cut through the rich custard and cake.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites until stiff. Egg whites must be whipped until they hold firm peaks so the meringue stays up and browns evenly. Under-whipped whites slump into the fruit and custard, while the sugar helps stabilize the foam.
Swap the peach
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Raisinfits about as well
- Peachthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, 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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