Pêches à la Cussy

Pêches à la Cussy (poached peaches under meringue) teaches a severe little lesson: drying and browning are not the same act. Its meringue italienne (Italian meringue) must set to a fine dry skin while remaining white. Colour counts as a fault, not because the plate wants fussiness, but because a toasted crust would drown the clean sequence of almond, peach, apricot, and Kirsch.

The entry sends the pastry cook to Apricots à la Cussy (No. 2553), which assumes a pastry station with poached fruit, apricot purée, fine salpicon, and meringue ready at hand. At home, make those components in sequence, use a small ovenproof platter in place of service equipment, and let a moderate oven do the drying. A salamander is too fierce for a finish that must not colour. I have scaled the crown to eight peach halves for four people. The brigade's holding and duplication are scaffolding and can go. The macaroon, bound salpicon, poached peach, meringue coat, and separate Kirsch sauce are the dish and must stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.

The finished meringue should be satin-smooth and thick enough to hide every contour, while the apricot sauce stays bright and loose in its own boat. The decisive moment comes at the oven: watch the white surface, not the clock, and pull the platter the instant the coating is dry to a light touch.