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Molasses Pear Preserves

Preserved pears stewed with molasses and ginger, then jarred.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Pear and ginger work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 452 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Molasses Pear Preserves

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pears

  1. Wash the pears well and peel them, leaving the stems intact.

  2. Drop the pears in cold water.

Stew the pears

  1. Heat gradually and stew the pears until tender.

  2. Drain the pears and keep them warm.

Make the molasses syrup

  1. Add 1 pint of molasses to the remaining liquid.

  2. Return the liquid to the fire.

  3. Add 1 teaspoon of ginger.

  4. Boil for 30 minutes, skimming occasionally.

Finish and seal

  1. Add the pears to the mixture.

  2. Cook for 20 minutes.

  3. Pack the pears in sterilized jars.

  4. Seal the jars while hot.

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

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

  2. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Pear + molassestop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together47 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Hard green pears
Provide the fruit itself, softening into tender pieces while holding their shape during stewing.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and a deep, treacle-like flavor to the syrup.
Ginger
Adds warm, spicy aroma that balances the sweetness of the molasses.

The step that matters

Boiling the molasses syrup. Molasses is thick and sugary, so it can scorch on the bottom of the pan during the 30-minute boil. Keep the heat steady and stir or skim so it does not burn, which would leave a bitter taste.

Swap the pear

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, ginger):

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Limefits about as well
  4. Pearthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, ginger. 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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