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Dessert

Pears in Syrup

A preserved fruit dish of unripe pears cooked in cold syrup, optionally flavored with vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pear and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 334 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Pears in Syrup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pears

  1. Peel the pears and place them in a bucket of cold water mixed with 1 ounce of sulphite of soda per 7 gallons of water.

  2. If pears are not perfectly white after blanching, bleach them in sulphur fumes for 6 hours before blanching.

Blanch and cool

  1. Blanch the pears in the same water by placing them in a basket and slowly bringing it to a boil.

  2. Once softened, remove the basket and dip it in a cold water tank for 5 minutes.

Pack and process

  1. Pack the pears into cans or jars and cover with cold syrup, adding a few grains of vanilla for flavor.

  2. Process quart cans for 16 minutes and pint cans for 12 minutes in boiling water.

  3. Allow jars to cool in the processing tank for 10 minutes.

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.

  1. Pear + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together334 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Syrup + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Pear + syruptop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together254 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Pears
Form the main body of the dish, softening during blanching and processing into tender fruit.
Sulphite of soda
Helps keep the pears white during peeling and blanching by slowing browning.
Cold syrup
Adds sweetness and moisture, filling the cans and surrounding the fruit.

The step that matters

Blanching the pears. Blanching softens the fruit only enough to be packed, while the sulphite water protects its colour. Overcooking makes the pears mushy and underheating leaves them firm and prone to browning.

Swap the vanilla

The recipe marks vanilla as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pear, syrup):

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Plumfits about as well
  3. Apricotfits less well
  4. Applefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pear, 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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