Name: Spiced Pears
Ingredients: Pears (hard or Bartlett); Syrup for spiced peaches

Why it works: Pear and peach 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 ↓

Spiced Pears

Ingredients

Pears (hard or Bartlett)
Syrup for spiced peaches

Directions

If using hard pears, steam them until tender.
Pour the syrup over the pears, using the same syrup as for spiced peaches.
If using Bartlett pears, they are soft and do not need cooking.

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.

Pear + peachtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together114 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Pear + syruptop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together254 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Syrup + peachtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together210 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).