Name: Peach Cobbler
Ingredients: 3 pints all-purpose flour; ¾ pound mixed butter and lard; 2 quarts freshly stewed peaches

Why it works: Flour and butter 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 Cobbler

Ingredients

3 pints all-purpose flour
¾ pound mixed butter and lard
2 quarts freshly stewed peaches

Directions

Prepare plain pastry using flour and mixed butter and lard.
Line a baking dish with the pastry.
Pour in the stewed peaches.
Cover with pastry and bake until brown.

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.

Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + peachtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together860 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Flour + peachtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together787 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

All-purpose flour: Forms the structure of the pastry, holding the crust together as it bakes.
Mixed butter and lard: Adds fat that keeps the pastry tender and flaky.
Stewed peaches: Supply the fruit filling and its juices, which add moisture and flavor.