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Peach Melba

Name: Peach Melba
Prep time: 2 h 20 min
Total time: 2 h 20 min
Yield: 6 people
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 3 peaches; poaching syrup; 300 ml vanilla ice cream; 150 g fruit coulis (fruit purée); 300 g Chantilly cream

Peach Melba is a famous dessert created in 1893 by an equally famous chef, Auguste Escoffier, and inspired by the singer Nellie Melba.
There have been many versions of this well-known dish but, in principal, it consists of vanilla ice cream, poached peaches, raspberry coulis and sweetened whipped cream (Chantilly). This is a simplified version.

144 K 3.9/5 (24 reviews)611666

Duration

2 hours 20 min.

Difficulty

Easy

Last modified on: September 9^th 2012

Step by step recipe Ingredients Duration Nutritional facts Cost Comments

For 6 people, you will need:

1 3 peaches
2 poaching syrup
3 300 ml vanilla ice cream
4 150 g fruit coulis (fruit purée)
5 300 g Chantilly cream
Total weight: 1,140 grams

Times for this recipe

Preparation

2 hours 20 min.

When should you start or finish this recipe?

If you start now, at , you will finish around : ?.Change start time

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Step by step recipe

Stage 1 - ⌛ 2 hours

Prepare 3 peaches: peel and poach them in the poaching syrup.

Leave to cool then dice (not too small).

Prepare the Chantilly cream.

Stage 2 - ⌛ 5 min.

Begin assembling the peach Melba:

Place 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream in the bottom of each dish.

Stage 3 - ⌛ 5 min.

Add a layer of peaches.

Stage 4 - ⌛ 5 min.

Pour some raspberry coulis over.

Stage 5 - ⌛ 5 min.

Finish with Chantilly cream and serve immediately.

Remarks

There have been innumerable versions of peach Melba, and just as many strange uses of the term (who has not seen any-old-thing 'Melba', as soon as vanilla ice cream and whipped cream are involved). It's worth remembering that this is the original recipe.

It would be unusual to find the original recipe in most people's kitchens these days, so here's an extract from the master chef's own book 'Ma Cuisine':

Escoffier melba recipe

'Fill the dishes to three-quarters of their height with vanilla ice-cream; place half a tender-fleshed peach, poached in vanilla syrup, in the centre, the outside of the peach resting on the ice cream; place a stone made of praline marzipan in the hollow, giving the illusion of a real stone. Coat with raspberry purée with a little Chantilly cream added. Cover with a light veil of spun sugar.'

At the same time, I wonder if it's possible to taste the original dish anywhere now? Far from certain.

Even so, we can look out for the essential flavours (which chefs call 'markers') which should be present to get somewhere near the original: vanilla ice cream, poached peach, raspberry, praline marzipan and Chantilly cream.

Keeping: Does not keep.

Source: After Auguste Escoffier.

Nutritional information

	Proteins	Carbohydrates	Fats	Calories	Energy
Per 100 g	15 g RDI=24 %	143 g RDI=54 %	46 g RDI=63 %	587 kcal RDI=29 %	2,461 kJ RDI=29 %
Per person	29 g RDI=45 %	272 g RDI=103 %	87 g RDI=120 %	1,116 kcal RDI=56 %	4,675 kJ RDI=56 %
Whole recipe	175 g RDI=270 %	1,632 g RDI=616 %	525 g RDI=719 %	6,699 kcal RDI=335 %	28,050 kJ RDI=335 %