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 Tart
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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the crust
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Prepare the tart crust by mixing flour, salt, and butter until crumbly.
Add water gradually to form a dough.
Roll out the dough and place it in a tart pan.
Assemble and bake
Slice the peaches and arrange them on the crust.
Sprinkle sugar over the peaches.
Bake for 30-40 minutes until the crust is golden and peaches are tender.
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.
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Peach + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together860 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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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 filling, becoming tender and sweet as they bake.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the peaches and helps them caramelise slightly on the surface.
- Butter
- Adds fat that makes the crust short and tender while it bakes.
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the tart crust once mixed with water.
The step that matters
Bake for 30-40 minutes until the crust is golden. Underbaking leaves the crust pale and doughy, while overbaking dries it out. Checking for golden colour and tender peaches helps the crust set and the fruit soften evenly.
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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