Why it works: Pear and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,079 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Pear Marmalade
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the pears until soft.
Once cooled, rub the pulp through a sieve.
Boil the pulp until it reaches a jelly consistency, adding 1 pound of sugar for every 2 pounds of pears.
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.
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Pear + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,079 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pears
- Provide the fruit pulp that forms the body and flavor of the marmalade.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the marmalade and helps it thicken to a jelly-like set as it cooks down.
The step that matters
Boil the pulp to a jelly consistency. Pears are low in natural pectin, so the pulp must be cooked long enough for sugar and fruit solids to concentrate and set. Undercooking leaves it runny, while overcooking can make it stiff and sticky.
“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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