Name: Baked Pears
Ingredients: ripe pears; sifted sugar; cream

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Baked Pears

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

ripe pears
sifted sugar
cream

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Place unpeeled ripe pears on a baking sheet.
Bake the pears until tender.
Flatten the pears gently with a spoon.
Transfer to a serving dish, sprinkle with sifted sugar, and serve with cream.

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.

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.

Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Pear + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,079 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Pear + creamtop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together404 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Ripe pears: Provide the main body of the dish, softening as they bake until tender.
Sifted sugar: Adds sweetness to the finished pears as a light finishing sprinkle.
Cream: Adds richness and a smooth, cooling contrast to the warm baked pears.