Name: Peaches and Pears
Ingredients: canned peaches and pears; syrup; pecans; marshmallows

Why it works: Peach and pear match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 114 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Peaches and Pears

Ingredients

canned peaches and pears
syrup
pecans
marshmallows

Directions

Prepare syrup and pour it into a baking dish.
Place the canned peaches and pears in the syrup.
Fill the cavities of the fruit with pecans.
Top each piece of fruit with a marshmallow.
Bake in the oven until the marshmallows are golden and melted.
Serve with a meat course or with whipped cream for dessert.

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 + peartop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together114 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Peach + pecanstop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together66 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Pear + pecanstop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Pear + syruptop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together254 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Peach + syruptop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together210 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).