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Dessert

Jargonelle Pears, to Bake

Pears baked with sugar, cloves, lemon rind, and optional wine, served in a syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pear and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 512 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Jargonelle Pears, to Bake

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.

Prepare

  1. Pare, core, and quarter the pears.

  2. Weigh the pears and place them in a baking dish with an equal weight of sugar.

  3. Add enough cold water to barely cover the pears, along with cochineal, cloves, and lemon rind.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until tender, being careful not to break them.

  2. Carefully lift the pears into a glass dish.

  3. Boil the sauce for 2-3 minutes, strain it, and pour it over the pears.

  4. Optionally, add a glass of sweet wine and dissolve isinglass or gelatine in the hot syrup to form a jelly around the pears.

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. Pear + clovetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together512 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Pear + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together223 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  4. Pear + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together942 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Lemon + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Pears
Form the main body of the dish, softening into tender fruit as they bake.
Sugar
Sweetens the dish and draws moisture from the pears to form a syrup.
Isinglass or gelatine
Sets the hot syrup into a jelly around the pears when used.

The step that matters

Bake until tender without breaking the pears. Pears soften gradually as heat breaks down their cell walls, so checking for tenderness with a fork prevents overcooking. Overbaking or rough handling makes them collapse and lose their shape.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pear, sugar, lemon, wine. 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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