Chef Juliette
Mayonnaise de Volaille
Cold roast chicken, ciseled lettuce, and a shining coat of homemade mayonnaise, arranged with capers, olives, anchovies, eggs, and lettuce hearts, then tossed at the table as the canon intends.
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Pêches Cardinal
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 2697, Pêches Cardinal, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Pêches Cardinal proves that a cold fruit dessert lives or dies by temperature and color: vanilla-poached peaches, a brilliant uncooked raspberry purée, kirsch, and almond splinters, all made ahead for the table.
Salads
French
Dinner Party
Make Ahead
Date Night
25 min
Active Time
15 min cook•3 hr total
Yield4 servings
Pêches Cardinal (peaches in cardinal-red raspberry purée) teaches one true thing before you touch the pan: the raspberry must never be cooked. The peaches take vanilla from a gentle syrup; the sauce stays raw, vivid, tart, and perfumed with kirsch. Cook it and you trade cardinal red for dull jam. That is not refinement, only damage.
The old entry assumed a pâtissier at the cold station, vanilla syrup standing ready, baskets of fruit, fresh almonds to shell and splinter, and a timbale large enough for service. A narrow saucepan, a fine sieve, a chilled serving bowl, and four peaches do the same work at home. Hard-to-find fresh white almonds become blanched slivered almonds, left strictly untoasted, and the syrup is reduced to the smallest useful quantity. The brigade's standing syrup and banquet portions were scaffolding; the raw purée, kirsch, white almonds, and complete chilling are the dish, and they stay.
Guard the peaches' tenderness. Poach them at a bare tremble and stop while a knife still meets the faintest resistance, because the fruit softens as it cools in syrup. One cook, one stove, one evening, then into the cold until the guests arrive.
Pêches Cardinal belongs to the Parisian grand-kitchen repertoire of chilled fruit entremets, where poached fruit was arranged in a timbale and clothed with a named sauce for the dining room. Cardinal refers to the intense ecclesiastical red of the uncooked raspberry purée, and the dish moved comfortably onto bourgeois home tables because every component could be prepared ahead. Unlike Pêche Melba, its better-known cousin, Pêches Cardinal contains no ice cream: vanilla stays in the poaching syrup, while raspberry remains raw and brilliant.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
water
Quantity
3 cups (710 ml / 710 g)
granulated sugar
Quantity
1½ cups (360 ml / 300 g)
vanilla bean
Quantity
1
split lengthwise
ripe but firm freestone peaches
Quantity
4 medium (about 24 oz / 680 g)
fresh red raspberries
Quantity
2½ cups (600 ml / 300 g)
superfine sugar
Quantity
Up to ¼ cup (60 ml / 50 g)
used according to the sweetness of the berries
kirsch
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g)
blanched slivered almonds
Quantity
⅓ cup (80 ml / 40 g)
left untoasted
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| water | 3 cups (710 ml / 710 g) |
| granulated sugar | 1½ cups (360 ml / 300 g) |
| vanilla beansplit lengthwise | 1 |
| ripe but firm freestone peaches | 4 medium (about 24 oz / 680 g) |
| fresh red raspberries | 2½ cups (600 ml / 300 g) |
| superfine sugarused according to the sweetness of the berries | Up to ¼ cup (60 ml / 50 g) |
| kirsch | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g) |
| blanched slivered almondsleft untoasted | ⅓ cup (80 ml / 40 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •Narrow 3-quart nonreactive saucepan
- •Slotted spoon
- •Fine-mesh sieve and flexible spatula
- •Parchment paper for the cartouche
- •1½-quart timbale or deep serving bowl
Instructions
- 1
Build the vanilla syrup
Put the water, granulated sugar, and split vanilla bean in a narrow 3-quart saucepan. Bring them just to a boil, stirring only until the sugar dissolves, then lower the heat and simmer for 3 minutes. The syrup should remain clear and smell distinctly of vanilla. A narrow pan gives the peaches enough depth without requiring the vat of syrup a brigade would keep ready.
- 2
Peel and halve peaches
Lower one whole peach at a time into the simmering syrup for 30 to 60 seconds, then lift it out with a slotted spoon. As soon as it is cool enough to handle, slip off the skin, cut along the natural seam, twist the halves apart, and remove the stone. Return each prepared half promptly to the syrup. If the skin clings, pare it away thinly with a sharp knife rather than cooking the peach until its outside turns soft.
- 3
Poach at a tremble
Cut a cartouche, a round of parchment laid directly over the fruit, and settle it on the surface. Hold the syrup at the barest tremble for 4 to 8 minutes, turning the halves once, until a paring knife enters the thickest part with faint resistance. Remove individual halves as they become ready. If one begins to split, lift it immediately and cool it separately in a spoonful of syrup; serve it split-side down and no one at the table will know.
- 4
Chill the peaches fully
Arrange the peach halves in a shallow nonreactive dish. Let the syrup settle for 5 minutes, then pour enough over the peaches to cover them and add the vanilla bean. Cool for about 20 minutes, cover, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. They must be quite cold before assembly: chilling firms the flesh, carries the vanilla through it, and keeps the raw raspberry purée brilliant.
- 5
Make the raw purée
Crush the raspberries thoroughly, then press them through a fine-mesh sieve with a flexible spatula, leaving the seeds behind. Stir in the superfine sugar a spoonful at a time, followed by the kirsch. The purée should taste of fresh raspberry first, with kirsch arriving at the finish, and should softly coat a spoon. Keep it cold and never put it over heat. Cooking dulls the cardinal red and turns fresh fruit into jam, which is precisely what this dish is not.
- 6
Coat and finish
Chill a 1½-quart timbale or deep serving bowl. Drain the peach halves thoroughly and blot their rounded sides gently, then arrange them cut-side down in the bowl. Cover them generously with the raspberry purée so it clings and pools between the fruit. If the purée slides away in streaks, the peaches are still wet. Lift them, blot again, and recoat them. Ça se rattrape. Scatter over the very white almond splinters only when the dish is ready to serve. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Choose peaches by perfume, then press very gently near the stem. They should yield slightly but remain firm enough to poach. Freestone fruit separates cleanly into halves; clingstone peaches taste just as good, but demand patient work with a small knife.
- •Frozen raspberries picked ripe are an honest alternative when fresh berries are pale or tired. Thaw them in the cold, drain away any loose water, weigh out 10½ ounces (300 g), and make the purée without heating it.
- •Kirsch is a dry cherry eau-de-vie, not a sweet cherry liqueur. The latter makes the purée sticky and candied. A small bottle is enough, and it keeps well in the cupboard.
- •Do not toast the almonds. Their clean whiteness against the red purée is part of the Cardinal finish, and their fresh, quiet crunch is more useful here than browned nuttiness.
Advance Preparation
- •Poach the peaches up to 24 hours ahead and refrigerate them submerged in their vanilla syrup. Drain and blot them only when you are ready to assemble the dish.
- •The raw raspberry purée can be sieved, sweetened, and flavored with kirsch up to 8 hours ahead. Keep it covered and cold, assemble the dessert no more than 30 minutes before serving, and add the almonds at the last moment so they remain crisp.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 255g)
Calories
270 calories
Total Fat
6 g
Saturated Fat
1 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
5 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
5 mg
Total Carbohydrates
50 g
Dietary Fiber
5 g
Sugars
44 g
Protein
4 g
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