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Dessert

To Bake Pears

Pears baked in a spiced port wine syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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To Bake Pears

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

To Bake Pears

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the poaching liquor

  1. Combine water, orange juice, cinnamon, cloves, mace, and lemon peel in a pot. Boil for 15 minutes.

  2. Strain the mixture and add red port, loaf sugar, and cochineal.

Bake and serve

  1. Peel, halve, and core the pears.

  2. Place the pears in a pan and pour the liquor over them.

  3. Cover the pan with parchment paper and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until tender.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Cinnamon + peartop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together600 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  5. Orange + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Baking pears
Provide the main fruit, which softens and turns tender as it bakes in the liquor.
Red port
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the liquor, and colours the pears.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the liquor and helps the pears take on a glossy, syrupy finish.
Seville oranges
Contribute acidity and citrus aroma to the poaching liquor.

The step that matters

Bake covered until tender. Covering the pan traps steam so the pears cook gently in the liquor. Pears vary in ripeness and density, so test with a knife rather than relying only on the clock to avoid under- or overcooked fruit.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (orange, cinnamon, clove, lemon, sugar, pear):

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against orange, cinnamon, clove, lemon, sugar, pear. 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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