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Bartlett Pears

Canned Bartlett pears preserved in sugar syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Why it works: Syrup and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Bartlett Pears

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the pears using a machine.

  2. Fill the can with pears, leaving a ¼ inch space at the top.

  3. Fill the space with syrup.

  4. Seal the can, leaving a small hole at the top.

Process and cool

  1. Place the can in boiling water for 5 minutes.

  2. Remove the can, seal the hole, and cook in boiling water for 18 minutes, adjusting for fruit ripeness.

  3. Cool the cans in cold water.

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. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Bartlett pear + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together83 recipes
  3. Bartlett pear + syruptop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Bartlett pears
Provide the fruit that softens and becomes tender during processing.
Syrup
Adds sweetness and moisture, filling the space to help preserve the fruit.

The step that matters

Remove the can, seal the hole, and cook in boiling water for 18 minutes. Sealing the hole after the initial heating traps steam and creates a vacuum seal, which keeps the can airtight. Timing must be adjusted for fruit ripeness so the pears are fully heat-treated and safely preserved.

Swap the bartlett pear

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (syrup, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Bartlett pearthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against syrup, sugar. 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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