Why it works: Apricot and peach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 342 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Fairy Fancies
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a very gentle oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the pastry
Roll out the short crust pastry thinly and evenly.
Use a large tin cutter to cut out a dozen small sheets.
With two round cutters, cut out four times as many rings, one about 1 inch in diameter and the other half that size.
Place the rings on the sheets as shown in the engraving.
Moisten each ring with a brush dipped in egg white before placing it on the pastry.
Bake and fill
Bake in a gentle oven at 300°F (150°C) until crisp and pale.
Fill each pastry with a different color preserve 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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Apricot + peachtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together342 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Peach + raspberrytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together190 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Apple + apricottop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together777 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-undecalactone (peach, sweet).
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Apple + peachtop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together303 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Apricot + raspberrytop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together257 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Short crust pastry
- Forms the crisp, sturdy shell that holds the filling.
- Egg white
- Brushed on the rings so they stick to the pastry sheets as they bake.
- Apple or strawberry jelly
- Provides sweetness and a glossy, fruity filling once set in the baked shell.
The step that matters
Baking at a gentle oven temperature. A low, gentle oven dries the pastry until it is crisp and pale without over-browning. Too hot an oven browns the edges before the centre dries, and the shells can warp or turn bitter.
“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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