Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Peach Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Line the sides of a pudding dish with the pie crust.
Peel the peaches, leaving them whole with pits in.
Make the syrup
In a saucepan, combine sugar, water, and butter; heat until butter melts.
Sprinkle flour into the syrup and stir to combine.
Pour the syrup over the peaches in the dish.
Bake and serve
Cover with the top crust and bake for 1 hour.
Serve hot.
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.
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Peach + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together860 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
-
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Peach + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,308 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Peaches
- Provide the fruit that softens and sweetens as it bakes under the crust.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the syrup and helps it thicken and brown slightly as it bakes.
- Flour
- Thickens the syrup so it clings to the peaches rather than running off.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat to the syrup, giving a smoother mouthfeel.
- Rich pie crust
- Forms the enclosing pastry that holds the peaches and syrup while baking.
The step that matters
Adding flour to the hot syrup. Stirring flour into the syrup while it is hot helps it dissolve evenly and prevents lumps, so the sauce thickens smoothly around the peaches.
Swap the peach
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, flour):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Peachthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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