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 Marmalade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the pears
Peel, quarter, and core the pears, then weigh them.
Place the pears in a preserving kettle and cover with cold water.
Heat slowly and boil gently until tender.
Skim the pears from the water and add the peelings and cores to the kettle.
Boil the peelings and cores for an hour, then strain the water.
Make the syrup
For each pound of fruit, use 1 pint of the strained water and 1 pound of sugar.
In the preserving kettle, combine the sugar and water, boil to a syrup, and remove scum.
Test the syrup by cooling a little on a saucer; it should jelly slightly.
Finish the marmalade
Stir the pears into the syrup and boil the marmalade for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.
Partly cool the marmalade and then store it as directed.
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
- Ripe pears
- Provide the fruit that forms the body and flavor of the marmalade.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the marmalade and, with the pectin in the fruit, helps it set and jelly.
- Cold water
- Covers the pears and, once strained, makes the syrup base for cooking.
The step that matters
Testing the syrup for jelly. Pectin sets only when enough sugar and acid are present and the mixture reaches the right concentration. Testing a cooled spoonful on a saucer shows whether it will jelly, so the marmalade neither stays runny nor turns stiff.
“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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