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Dessert

Baked Pears

Baked pears filled with walnuts, dates, and figs, topped with brown sugar and served with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Baked Pears

Why it works: Pear and fig share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 65 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Baked Pears

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wash and core the pears.

  2. Fill each pear with a mixture of equal parts chopped English walnuts, dates, and figs.

  3. Sprinkle brown sugar over the filled pears.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until the pears are soft.

  2. Serve cold with whipped cream.

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. Pear + figtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together65 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Dates + figtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together318 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  3. Walnut + figtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together373 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Pear + walnuttop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together190 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Walnut + datestop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together302 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Large pears
Form the main body of the dish, softening as they bake.
English walnuts
Add crunch and a nutty flavor contrast to the soft filling.
Dates
Add natural sweetness and a chewy, moist texture to the filling.
Figs
Add chewy texture and sweetness that blends with the dates.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the pears and promotes light browning on the surface.
Whipped cream
Adds cool richness that contrasts with the warm, baked fruit.

The step that matters

Bake until the pears are soft. Pears must be fully tender for the filling and fruit to taste sweet and yield easily. Underbaked pears stay firm and starchy, while a slow oven helps them cook through evenly without drying or scorching the sugar.

Swap the dates

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pear, walnut, fig, sugar, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pear, walnut, fig, sugar, cream. 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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