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Dessert

Pear Chips

Pear Chips are dried, sweetened pears flavored with ginger and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Fannie Merritt Farmer · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 4 ingredients
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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 ↓

Pear Chips

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash pears, remove stems, quarter, and core; then cut into small pieces.

  2. Add sugar and ginger, and let stand overnight.

Cook and store

  1. In the morning, add lemons cut into small pieces, rejecting seeds, and cook slowly for three hours.

  2. Put into a stone jar.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

164Calories
1 gProtein
0 gFat
44 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Pear1 medium (178g)101
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2

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

By Fannie Merritt Farmer. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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.

  1. Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pear + gingertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together452 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Pear + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together942 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

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

  5. 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
Form the bulk of the preserve, softening into a thick, fruity body as they cook.
Sugar
Draws juice out of the fruit overnight and, as it concentrates, adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture.
Lemons
Add acidity for brightness and natural pectin that helps the mixture thicken and set.
Canton ginger
Adds a warm, spicy aroma that flavors the syrup throughout the cooking.

The step that matters

Cooking slowly for three hours. As water evaporates, the sugar concentrates and can scorch on the bottom of the pan if the heat is too high. Low, steady heat lets the fruit break down and the syrup thicken evenly without burning.

Swap the pear

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

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Mangofits about as well
  4. Pearthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, ginger, lemon. 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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