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Poached Pears with Brandy Snap Baskets and White Chocolate Ice Cream

This pretty dessert is perfect for serving up at a dinner party as all of the components can be prepared in advance.

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and chocolate are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 5,463 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4
Cook1 hr

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Cream + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together5,463 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Pear + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together334 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Milk + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together19,175 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  4. Chocolate + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together10,018 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and vanilla share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,031 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, milk, cream, chocolate, pear, vanilla):

  1. Strawberrybetter flavor fit
  2. Raspberrybetter flavor fit
  3. Figbetter flavor fit
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, milk, cream, chocolate, pear, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).