Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Pear Preserves
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare pears as directed for quince preserves.
Flavor the mixture with ginger-root and lemon, or add a few cloves stuck into the fruit.
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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Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,038 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,154 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Pear + gingertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together452 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Pear + clovetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together512 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,150 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the pear
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ginger, lemon, clove):
- Limefits better
- Orangefits better
- Quincefits better
- Pearthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against ginger, lemon, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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