Pêches Petit-Duc

Pêches Petit-Duc (vanilla-poached peaches with pineapple, vanilla ice cream, and red-currant jelly) teaches a small but exact lesson: garnish has structure. The jelly must be smooth enough to spoon cleanly, yet cold enough to stand in little heaps. If it remains lumpy, the dish looks careless; if it runs, it stains the ice cream and loses the contrast that defines it.

The original entry assumed a cold station with Pêches Dame-Blanche already prepared, ice cream properly held, and several hands to assemble dessert at the last moment. At home, make that referenced base for four, omit its Chantilly cream balls, and shape the jelly with two teaspoons. The brigade's separate staging is scaffolding and can go. The cold peaches, vanilla ice cream, liqueur-scented pineapple, and sharp red-currant contrast are the dish and must stay.

One cook, one stove, one evening. Chill the serving vessel before you begin, then work the jelly smooth with a fork. That texture is the step that decides whether Petit-Duc arrives composed or collapses into jam over ice cream.