Name: Peach Ckeam Pie
Ingredients: 1 pie crust; 2 cups grated peaches; a few pounded peach kernels; 1 cup heavy cream; sugar to taste; vanilla extract to taste

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 Ckeam Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the crust

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Line a pie plate with the pie crust.
Bake the crust until golden.

Assemble the pie

In a bowl, combine grated peaches and pounded peach kernels.
Spread the peach mixture into the baked pie crust.
Whip the heavy cream until soft peaks form, then sweeten and flavor with vanilla.
Spread the whipped cream over the peaches.
Chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

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 + vanillatop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together558 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together12,301 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Peach + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,308 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Heavy cream: Whipped into a light topping that gives the pie its creamy, airy texture.
Grated peaches: Provide the fruit flavor and moisture for the filling.
Pie crust: Forms the base that holds the filling and gives a crisp, golden structure.