Name: Peach Pie
Ingredients: Flaked wheat (for crust); 2 eggs (for meringue); Fresh or evaporated peaches; Sugar (to taste); Whipped cream (optional for sweet fruit)

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 Pie

Ingredients

Flaked wheat (for crust)
2 eggs (for meringue)
Fresh or evaporated peaches
Sugar (to taste)
Whipped cream (optional for sweet fruit)

Directions

Make the crust using flaked wheat, similar to a cherry pie crust.
Put the peaches through a colander and mix with sugar to taste.
Spread the peach mixture on the crust.
For the meringue, beat the egg whites with a little sugar until very stiff and spread over the peaches.
If using sweet fruit, top with whipped cream instead of meringue.

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).
Wheat + peachtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together37 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Peach + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,308 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Wheat + eggtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,225 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).