Pêches Melba
The dessert Auguste Escoffier created in the 1890s at London's Savoy hotel in honour of the Australian soprano Nellie Melba. It is peaches poached in vanilla syrup, served on vanilla ice cream and topped with fresh raspberry sauce. Three simple elements, but each must be good: ripe, fragrant peaches, real vanilla and raspberries pushed through a sieve. The peaches are poached briefly — they should soften, not turn into compote.
Your own work in that: 5 min.
- Syrup 5 min
- Poaching the peaches 8 min
- Cooling 60 min
- Raspberry sauce 10 min
- Assembly 5 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneBring the vanilla syrup to the boil
In a pan where the peaches fit in one layer, bring the water to the boil with the sugar, the split vanilla pod and the juice of half a lemon, stirring until the sugar dissolves.
Ingredients: 4 pcs ripe peaches · 500 ml water · 200 g sugar · 1 pcs vanilla pod · ½ pcs lemon juice
Poach the peaches briefly
Lower the whole peaches into the syrup and poach over low heat 5–8 minutes, turning them, until a knife slides into the flesh without resistance. Ripe fruit needs less time, firmer fruit more. Overcooked, they turn mushy.
Ingredients: 4 pcs ripe peaches · 500 ml water · 200 g sugar · 1 pcs vanilla pod · ½ pcs lemon juice
Over low heat — until tender, not falling apart.Slip off the skins
Lift the peaches out with a slotted spoon and, as soon as you can touch them, slip the skins off with your fingers — once poached they come away easily. Underneath, the flesh has a lovely pink blush.
Ingredients: 4 pcs ripe peaches · 500 ml water · 200 g sugar · 1 pcs vanilla pod · ½ pcs lemon juice
The skin slips off — a pink blush beneath.Cool in the syrup
Return the peeled peaches to the syrup and cool them in it for at least an hour, ideally chilling them in the fridge. Cooling in the syrup gives them vanilla flavour and stops them browning.
Ingredients: 4 pcs ripe peaches · 500 ml water · 200 g sugar · 1 pcs vanilla pod · ½ pcs lemon juice
Blend the raspberries
Blend the raspberries with the icing sugar and a teaspoon of lemon juice into a smooth sauce. Thaw frozen raspberries first. Taste — the sauce should be distinctly raspberry and slightly tart, to balance the sweet ice cream and syrup.
Ingredients: 250 g raspberries, fresh or frozen · 40 g icing sugar · 1 tsp lemon juice
Sieve the sauce
Push the sauce through a fine sieve with a spoon and discard the seeds. Escoffier's sauce is silky — seeds have no place in it.
Ingredients: 250 g raspberries, fresh or frozen · 40 g icing sugar · 1 tsp lemon juice
Through a sieve — a silky, seedless sauce.Halve the peaches
Lift the peaches from the syrup, pat gently dry, halve them and remove the stones. Keep the syrup — it is great for lemonade or soaking sponge.
Ingredients: 4 pcs ripe peaches · 500 ml water · 200 g sugar · 1 pcs vanilla pod · ½ pcs lemon juice
Assemble the dessert
Put a scoop of vanilla ice cream in each coupe, top with two peach halves, pour over the raspberry sauce and, if you like, scatter with toasted flaked almonds. Serve at once, before the ice cream melts.
Ingredients: 400 g vanilla ice cream · 20 g flaked almonds, toasted
Before you start
Choosing peaches
Ripe, pale-fleshed peaches that smell fragrant at the stem are best. Nectarines work too, but their skin does not slip off as easily. Tinned peaches are too soft and sweet — the dessert loses its freshness.
The historical version
Escoffier first served the peaches on ice cream in a swan carved from ice. The raspberry sauce joined the dessert a few years later. Today it is served in ordinary coupes.
For a party
Peaches in syrup keep 2 days in the fridge and the raspberry sauce 3 days. Assembling the dessert then takes a minute per serving.
