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Dessert

Stewed Pears

Stewed pears simmered with sugar, cloves, allspice, water, and port wine, then cooled and served with a cochineal‑colored syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Stewed Pears

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and simmer

  1. Peel the pears, halve them, and remove the cores, leaving the stalks on.

  2. Place the pears in a lined saucepan with the sugar, cloves, allspice, water, and port wine.

  3. Simmer gently for 3 to 4 hours until tender, watching carefully to avoid overcooking.

Finish the syrup

  1. Once done, carefully lift the pears onto a glass dish without breaking them.

  2. Boil the syrup quickly for 2 to 3 minutes, then allow it to cool slightly.

  3. Pour the syrup over the pears and let them cool completely.

  4. Add a few drops of prepared cochineal to enhance the color if desired.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pear + clovetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together512 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Pear + allspicetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together164 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  4. Pear + port winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Clove + port winetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together914 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Pears
Provide the main body, which softens into a tender texture during slow simmering.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and body to the syrup that coats the pears.
Port wine
Adds rich, fruity depth of flavour and some colour to the syrup.
Cloves
Contribute warm aromatic spice flavour to the syrup.
Whole allspice
Contributes warm, aromatic spice flavour to the syrup.

The step that matters

Gentle simmering until tender. Pears can turn mushy if overcooked. A gentle simmer softens the fruit evenly while helping it keep its shape, so checking for tenderness matters.

Swap the pear

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, clove, allspice, port wine):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Pearthe original
  3. Vanillafits about as well
  4. Orangefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, clove, allspice, port wine. 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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