Why it works: Peach and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,308 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Peach Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Peel, stone, and slice the peaches.
Assemble
Line a pie plate with crust and add the sliced peaches.
Sprinkle sugar over the peaches based on their sweetness.
Add 3 chopped peach kernels to the pie.
Pour in a small amount of water.
Cover with an upper crust or create a lattice with strips of dough.
Bake
Bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden.
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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Peach + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,308 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Peaches
- Form the main filling and supply juices that set into a syrup as they cook.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and draws moisture out of the peaches, thickening the juices.
- Pie crust
- Gives structure to hold the filling and browns to a golden finish in the oven.
- Peach kernels
- Add a faint almond-like aroma to the filling.
The step that matters
Adding the peach kernels. Peach kernels contain compounds that can release cyanide when crushed or chopped, so this step carries a real safety risk. Check whether the kernels are safe to eat before adding them, and consider omitting this step.
“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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