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 Preserves
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pare, halve, and core the pears.
If the pears are hard, boil them in water until tender, using that water for the syrup.
For each pound of fruit, use ¾ pound of sugar.
Cook the pears
Boil the sugar with water for a few moments, then skim and cool.
When lukewarm, add the pears and boil gently until the syrup penetrates and the pears look clear.
Remove any pieces that cook before the others.
Finish
Once done, take out the pears, boil down the syrup a little, and pour it over the 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 whose flesh softens and turns clear as syrup replaces its water.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and draws water out of the fruit, helping preserve it and thicken the syrup.
The step that matters
Boil gently until the pears look clear. Gentle heat lets the syrup slowly penetrate the fruit. A hard boil can break the pears apart and cook the outside faster than the inside.
“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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