Name: Tutti Frutti Pie
Ingredients: short pastry crust; peaches, pared and halved; pears, pared and halved; plums, halved; bananas, sliced; pitted grapes; sugar; 2 tablespoons butter

Why it works: Pear and plum match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 245 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Tutti Frutti Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Line a deep dish with short pastry crust.
Add the halved peaches, pears, plums, sliced bananas, and pitted grapes.
Sprinkle a layer of sugar between the fruit and add the butter cut into bits.
Bake until the fruit is tender.
When cool, cover with meringue and brown delicately in a 350°F (175°C) oven.

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.

Pear + plumtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together245 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Peach + plumtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together163 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Peach + peartop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together114 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Pear + bananatop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together87 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Peach + bananatop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together130 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

Swap the grape

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peach, pear, plum, banana, sugar, butter):

Vanillafits better
Apricotfits better
Applefits better
Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peach, pear, plum, banana, sugar, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.