Name: Peach Meringue
Ingredients: ripe peaches; nutmeg; stewed lemon peel; pie crust; meringue; vanilla or rose-water

Why it works: Peach and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 558 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Peach Meringue

Ingredients

Directions

Peel and slice the peaches.
Stew and sweeten the peaches until soft.
Mash the peaches smooth and season with nutmeg and stewed lemon peel.
Fill the pie crust with the peach mixture and bake until just done.
Let the pie cool, then spread with meringue flavored with vanilla or rose-water.
Serve cold.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + vanillatop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together558 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Nutmeg + vanillatop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,781 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Peach + nutmegtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together342 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Peach + lemontop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together947 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).