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 Marmalade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and cook the pears
Peel and core the pears.
Place the pears in a preserving kettle with water.
Crush the pears constantly while they boil until reduced to a smooth pulp.
Add sugar and finish
Once the pulp is smooth, add the sugar.
Boil the mixture well together.
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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Pear + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,079 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pears
- Provide the bulk of the marmalade and natural pectin that helps it thicken and set.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and, with boiling, thickens the pulp and helps preserve it.
The step that matters
Boil well after adding the sugar. Sugar and heat thicken the pulp as water evaporates. Stopping the boil early leaves the marmalade runny and less stable for storage.
“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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