Name: Pear Dumplings
Ingredients: Pastry for dumplings; Medium-size pears; 1 beaten egg; Powdered sugar or sauce for serving

Why it works: Pear and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,079 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Pear Dumplings

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Pastry for dumplings
Medium-size pears
1 beaten egg
Powdered sugar or sauce for serving

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare a good pastry and cut it into pieces large enough to enclose a pear.
Peel the pears, leaving them whole and keeping the stem intact.
Enclose each pear in the pastry.
Brush the dumplings with the beaten egg.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.
Serve hot or cold with powdered sugar or sauce.

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 + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,079 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pear + eggtop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together538 recipes

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