Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
Pickled Pears
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the pears
Prepare the pears by peeling and leaving them whole or quartering them.
Make the syrup and cook the pears
In a pot, combine sugar and vinegar to make a syrup and bring it to a boil.
Add the pears to the boiling syrup and cook until tender but not broken.
Carefully remove the pears and place them in a jar, then pour the syrup over them.
Let the pears sit until the next day.
Pack and store
Layer the pears in a stone jar with whole cloves and stick cinnamon.
Pour the boiling hot syrup over the layered pears.
For four to five days, continue to draw off and boil the syrup.
Cover the jar and store it in a cool place.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Pear + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together600 recipes
Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
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Pear + clovetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together512 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pears and, with the vinegar, forms the preserving syrup.
- Vinegar
- Acidity that preserves the pears and gives the pickle its sharp flavor.
- Pears
- The fruit being pickled; cooking softens them while they keep their shape.
- Whole cloves
- Adds warm aromatic spice flavor to the syrup and pears.
- Stick cinnamon
- Adds sweet woody aroma and warm flavor to the pickling syrup.
The step that matters
Cooking the pears until tender but not broken. Pears cooked too long lose their shape and turn mushy, while undercooked pears stay hard. Gentle boiling in the syrup softens the flesh while the cell structure holds together.
Swap the pear
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, vinegar, clove, cinnamon):
- Vanillafits better
- Quincefits better
- Figfits about as well
- Pearthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, clove, cinnamon. 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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