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Dessert

Peach, and Pear

A sun-dried fruit dish made from peaches, pears, ginger, and brown sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Peach and pear match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 114 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Peach, and Pear

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Peel the peaches and pears.

  2. Stew the fruit in enough water until fully cooked.

  3. Pass the cooked fruit through a colander to remove hard bits.

  4. Season the fruit with ginger.

  5. Sweeten the fruit to taste with brown sugar.

Dry in the sun

  1. Rub unsalted butter on the bottom of long dishes.

  2. Spread the fruit in layers about ⅓ inch thick in the dishes.

  3. Set the dishes in the sun to dry.

  4. Once the top side is dry, carefully turn the fruit over.

  5. Continue turning until the fruit is completely dry, taking it in at night.

Store

  1. Store the dried fruit in jars with a little powdered sugar between the layers.

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. Peach + peartop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together114 recipes

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

  2. Pear + gingertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together452 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Peach + gingertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together218 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Peach + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together860 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Pear + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together583 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

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

What each ingredient does

Peaches
Provide the main fruit flavor and body once stewed and dried.
Pears
Add mild sweetness and a softer, smoother texture to the fruit mass.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a molasses note that deepens the flavor as the fruit dries.
Unsalted butter
Greases the dishes so the fruit releases cleanly and does not stick.
Ginger
Adds warm, aromatic spice that contrasts with the sweet fruit.

The step that matters

Turning the fruit as it dries. Fruit left on one side can stay moist and spoil or grow mold, while turning exposes all surfaces to air and sun so the whole layer dries evenly. Taking it in at night keeps dew and humidity from rehydrating it.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerthe original
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Nutmegfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against peach, pear, sugar, butter. 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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