Why it works: Pear and bartlett pear share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 19 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-methylbutyl acetate, which smells fruit. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the fruit
Boil cherries for 5 minutes.
Boil raspberries for 6 minutes.
Boil blackberries for 6 minutes.
Boil plums for 10 minutes.
Boil strawberries for 8 minutes.
Boil whortleberries for 5 minutes.
Boil pie plant, sliced, for 10 minutes.
Boil small sour pears whole for 30 minutes.
Boil Bartlett pears in halves for 20 minutes.
Boil peaches for 8 minutes.
Boil whole peaches for 15 minutes.
Boil pine apples, sliced, for 15 minutes.
Boil Siberian or crab apples whole for 25 minutes.
Boil sour apples, quartered, for 10 minutes.
Boil ripe currants for 6 minutes.
Boil wild grapes for 10 minutes.
Boil tomatoes for 20 minutes.
Add sugar
Add sugar according to the following: 6 ounces for cherries, 4 ounces for raspberries, 6 ounces for blackberries, 4 ounces for field blackberries, 8 ounces for strawberries, 4 ounces for whortleberries, 10 ounces for quinces, 8 ounces for small sour pears, 8 ounces for wild grapes, 4 ounces for peaches, 6 ounces for Bartlett pears, 6 ounces for pine apples, 8 ounces for Siberian or crab apples, 10 ounces for pie plant, 8 ounces for plums, 6 ounces for sour apples, and 8 ounces for ripe currants.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Pear + bartlett peartop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together19 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
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Plum + peartop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together241 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
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Pear + appletop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together648 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
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Plum + peachtop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together161 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Plum + appletop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together398 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and helps preserve it by binding water and slowing spoilage.
The step that matters
Add sugar according to the following. Each fruit has its own sugar amount. Sugar binds water and helps preserve the fruit, and the right ratio affects how the fruit sets and keeps. Too little sugar weakens preservation, while too much makes the result overly sweet.
Flavor stand-ins for the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (plum, pear, bartlett pear, peach, pine, apple, crab):
- Apricotbetter flavor fit
- Grapebetter flavor fit
- Pineapplebetter flavor fit
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against plum, pear, bartlett pear, peach, pine, apple, crab. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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Illustration
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