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Dessert

Gingered Pears

A preserved pear dessert with sugar, ginger, lemon, raisins, vinegar, spices, and walnuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Gingered Pears

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Layer the cut pears with sugar in a jar and let it stand overnight.

Cook

  1. In the morning, place the jar over low heat.

  2. Add the crystallized ginger, sliced lemons, raisins, vinegar, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves.

  3. Cook until the mixture is reduced by one-third.

  4. Stir in the chopped walnuts last.

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.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Pear + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together600 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pears
Provide the bulk of the fruit, softening into a thick, spreadable mass as they cook.
Sugar
Draws moisture out of the pears and sweetens the preserve while helping it thicken.
Crystallized ginger
Adds sharp, warm spice and a chewy texture to the finished preserve.
Lemons
Contribute acidity and aroma that balance the sweetness of the sugar.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture as they plump during cooking.
Walnuts
Add crunch and a toasty, nutty flavor to the softened fruit.

The step that matters

Reducing the mixture by one-third. Cooking long enough thickens the preserve by evaporating water, but cooking too long can scorch the sugar and fruit on the bottom of the pan. Low heat and regular stirring help it reduce evenly.

Swap the pear

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

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Pearthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, ginger, lemon, raisin, vinegar, nutmeg, cinnamon. 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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