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Dessert

Peach Cobbler

A baked dessert of sliced peaches topped with biscuit dough crust and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Peach Cobbler

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the crust

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix flour, lard or butter, and salt as for biscuit dough, adding sweet milk or water as needed.

  3. Roll the dough thin and line a pudding dish or dripping pan.

Fill and assemble

  1. In a separate bowl, mix 3 tablespoons of flour and 2 tablespoons of sugar, then sprinkle over the crust.

  2. Layer the sliced peaches on top, adding a slice of crust occasionally.

  3. Sprinkle 1 cup of sugar over the peaches and wet the edges of the crust with a flour and water mixture.

  4. Place the upper crust on top, press the edges together, and make 2 openings in the top about 1 inch long.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 30 minutes until golden brown.

  2. Serve with cream.

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.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Milk + peachtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together781 recipes

    Shared aroma: phellandrene (minty).

  3. Milk + coffeetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + peachtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together860 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, 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

Flour
Forms the dough structure and thickens the peach juices into a filling.
Lard or butter
Adds fat that makes the crust tender and flaky.
Peaches
Provide the main fruit filling and its juices, which soften during baking.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps the crust brown.

The step that matters

Wet the edges and press them together. A flour and water seal keeps the juices inside the crust while baking. If the edges are not sealed, the filling can leak and the bottom crust can become soggy.

Swap the peach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, milk, sugar, coffee):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, milk, sugar, coffee. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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