Why it works: Peach and red currant work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 33 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓
Flan of Peaches
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 case
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Grease a fluted circular or oval mold, about 2 inches high and 8 inches in diameter, with butter.
Line the mold with short paste.
Cut the edges level.
Pinch the top edges with pastry pincers.
Fill the case with flour mixed with chopped suet.
Bake until three-quarters done.
Remove the flour.
Clean the case with a paste brush.
Fill and finish
Fill the case with halves of peaches that have been simmered in thin syrup for 5 minutes.
Return the flan to the oven for about 15 minutes.
Arrange a close row of peach halves, previously simmered in syrup mixed with red currant juice, on top.
Place a peach kernel on each piece of peach.
Pour jelly over the entire flan before serving.
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.
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Peach + red curranttop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together33 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + peachtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together860 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Flour + syruptop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,540 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Flour + peachtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together787 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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
- Short paste
- Forms the crisp, sturdy case that holds the filling during baking.
- Peaches
- Supply the fruit filling and topping, providing sweetness and aroma.
- Red currant juice
- Flavours the peach topping with tartness and gives it a glossy, jelly-like set.
- Suet
- Fat that is used in the flour filling that partly bakes the case before the fruit goes in.
The step that matters
Baking the case before adding the fruit. Baking the empty case until three-quarters done, after the flour filling is removed, helps the pastry set and dry out so it stays crisp under the moist peaches rather than turning soggy.
Swap the red currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, peach, syrup):
- Vanillafits better
- Apricotfits better
- Figfits better
- Red currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, peach, syrup. 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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