Name: Ginger Pear
Ingredients: eight pounds pears sliced thin; six pounds sugar; one-fourth pound preserved ginger root; one pint water; four lemons sliced

Why it works: Ginger and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Ginger Pear

Ingredients

Directions

Combine sliced pears, sugar, preserved ginger root, water, and sliced lemons.
Cook for one hour.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

164Calories

1 gProtein

0 gFat

44 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Pear	1 medium (178g)	101
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Water	not in our table	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Friday club, Yarmouth, Mass. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

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.

Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,154 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pear + gingertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together452 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Pear + lemontop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together942 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together14,054 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Pear + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,079 recipes

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

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Pears: Provide the bulk of the fruit, softening as they cook into a thick preserve.
Sugar: Sweetens the pears and helps thicken the syrup as it cooks down.
Preserved ginger root: Adds spicy aroma and a warm, pungent flavour to the fruit.
Lemons: Add acidity that brightens the sweetness and supports the preserve's set.