Name: Peach Cream Pie
Ingredients: 1 deep pie crust; 4 to 6 fresh peaches, peeled, halved, and pitted (or canned peaches); 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour; 1 cup granulated sugar; sweet cream (enough to fill the pie pan)

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Peach Cream Pie

Ingredients

1 deep pie crust
4 to 6 fresh peaches, peeled, halved, and pitted (or canned peaches)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
sweet cream (enough to fill the pie pan)

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 a deep pie pan with the pie crust.

Fill and bake

Peel, halve, and pit the peaches, then fill the pan with them.
Mix the flour and sugar together, then sprinkle over the peaches.
Pour sweet cream over the peaches until the pan is filled.
Bake until the pie is done.

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.

Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Peach + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,308 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Peach + flourtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together787 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,481 recipes

Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

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 and its sweet, juicy flavor.
All-purpose flour: Thickens the juices released by the peaches as the pie bakes.
Granulated sugar: Adds sweetness and helps draw out juice from the peaches.
Sweet cream: Adds richness and moisture, setting into a creamy custard as it bakes.