Why it works: Peach and butter work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 860 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓
Plain Dried Peach Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the filling
Pick over and wash the dried peaches.
Add a little water and cook until soft.
Stir in enough sugar to sweeten and let cool.
Assemble and bake
Line a pie tin with dough and fill with the peach mixture.
Dot the top with butter.
Cover with a top crust and bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden.
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 + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together860 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
-
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Peach + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,308 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Dried peaches
- Provide the fruit flavor and the bulk of the filling once softened.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and balances the tartness of the dried fruit.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps the top crust brown as it bakes.
- Pie crust
- Forms the structure that holds the filling in the tin.
The step that matters
Let the peach filling cool before assembling. Hot filling melts the butter and softens the dough before baking, so the bottom crust can turn soggy and the pie can lose its structure.
Swap the peach
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Peachthe original
- Coconutfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter. 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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