Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Peach Puddixg
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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Assemble
Butter a pudding dish and layer sliced peaches in it, then sweeten to taste.
In a bowl, mix sour cream, egg, baking soda, salt, and enough flour to create a stiff batter.
Pour the batter over the peaches.
Bake and serve
Bake until golden brown and cooked through.
Serve hot with cream.
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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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Peach + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together860 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
- Sour cream
- Adds moisture and tang, keeping the batter tender and rich.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and helps it set as it bakes.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour cream to lift the batter as it bakes.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides structure, thickening the batter into a stiff base that holds its shape.
- Sliced peaches
- Supply the fruit flavor and juice that soak into the pudding while baking.
The step that matters
Mixing the stiff batter. Adding enough flour to make a stiff batter matters because too little leaves the pudding loose and wet, while too much makes it dense. Mixing only until combined keeps it tender.
Swap the peach
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cream, egg, flour):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Peachthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, egg, flour. 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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