Greetings, you clever people

There's this branch of "Slow Food" that you might call "food on authentic instruments", that's to say, making old recipes with the appropriate heirloom fruits and vegetables.

Anyway, I got to thinking about recreating the perfect Peach Melba.

Peach Melba: one perfect peach filled with vanilla icecream served in a swan made of ice; a later version is garbed with raspberry sauce (which must make the swan look a little gruesome.) Originally invented by Escoffier in London in the Winter of 1892-93.

So, I've been wondering: if you wanted to recreate Escoffier's recipe, which surviving varieties of peach and raspberry would you use?

(The winter season makes it a bit tricky if you ask me; I guess very late cultivars or early might do it, but there's always the greenhouse factor. It also seems cussedly hard to find out detail about European heritage fruits on the net, so I've been forced to speculate mainly about US varieties.)

Anyway, some initial findings. Because of the swan thing, I presume the peach is white; I was thinking maybe George IV (1820) or Hiley (1886). Champion White (1890) at a pinch - no, wait a minute, it's mid-season...

Raspberries: Red Antwerp (1817), or Cuthbert (1880)? At a severe pinch, Mammoth Red (1891). Anyone know anything about razzers called 'Gregg' or "Franconia"?

In idler moments, I have speculated about a black raspberry sauce, to turn the swan into a black Aussie swan in honour of Dame Nellie Melba. Loudon, maybe?

(In answer to the unasked question, I'm still thinking about appropriate chickens and cows for the ice-cream.)

regards

BALLIN