Name: Peach Shortcake
Ingredients: sliced peaches; sugar; shortcake (prepared using a strawberry shortcake recipe)

Why it works: Peach and strawberry match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 228 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Peach Shortcake

Ingredients

sliced peaches
sugar
shortcake (prepared using a strawberry shortcake recipe)

Directions

Prepare a strawberry shortcake recipe.
Slice peaches and mix them with sugar, allowing them to sit for 30 minutes.
Assemble the shortcake with the sugared peaches.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Peach + strawberrytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together228 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Peach + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,308 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + strawberrytop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,060 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).