Name: White Pears, Wet
Ingredients: fine large pears (eating or baking); cold water; alum (optional); sugar for syrup

Why it works: Sugar and syrup 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 ↓

White Pears, Wet

Ingredients

fine large pears (eating or baking)
cold water
alum (optional)
sugar for syrup

Directions

Select fine large pears that are tender, sweet, and not overripe.
Prick the pears and blanch them until soft, optionally adding a little alum.
Drop the pears into cold water.
Pare off the rind very thin and prick to the core, then place them in another pan of cold water.
Heat the pears again until thoroughly scalded, then run a bodkin or pin through them easily.
Once more, place them in cold water, then drain.
Prepare a thin syrup by boiling sugar to the 'Small Thread' stage.
Boil the pears in the syrup two or three times, skimming off any scum.
Transfer the pears and syrup to an earthenware pan.
The next day, drain off the syrup, add fresh syrup, and boil to the 'Large Thread' stage.

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.

Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Pear + syruptop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together254 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Pear + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,079 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).