Name: Peach Salad
Ingredients: 2 halved and peeled peaches; 1 cup whipped cream; 1 tablespoon lemon juice; 2 tablespoons ground almonds

Why it works: Peach and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 466 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Peach Salad

Ingredients

2 halved and peeled peaches
1 cup whipped cream
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons ground almonds

Directions

Prepare

Halve and peel the peaches.

Make the topping

In a bowl, mix the whipped cream with lemon juice.

Serve

Serve the peaches topped with the lemon-flavored whipped cream.
Sprinkle ground almonds over the top.

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 + almondtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,655 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Peach + lemontop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together947 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Cream + almondtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,130 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Peach + creamtop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together721 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Peaches: Provide the fruit base and natural sweetness of the salad.
Whipped cream: Adds richness and a light, creamy texture over the fruit.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the cream's sweetness.
Ground almonds: Adds a nutty flavor and a slightly crunchy texture on top.