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Dessert

Ginger Pears

Pears cooked in a ginger and lemon syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Ginger Pears

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel, halve, core, and remove the stem and flower ends from the pears.

  2. Soak the pears in cold water mixed with 1 tablespoon of vinegar per quart to prevent browning.

  3. Trim the rind from the lemon.

  4. Cook the lemon rind separately until soft.

Make the syrup

  1. Combine 2 pounds of sugar, 1 pint of water, dried ginger root, and lemon juice in a pot.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Reduce heat and let the syrup simmer.

  4. Add the cooked rind to the syrup.

Cook and finish

  1. Cook the pears in the syrup a few at a time until tender.

  2. Once all pears are cooked, boil the syrup down until thick.

  3. Pour the thickened syrup over the pears.

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. Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Vinegar + gingertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,126 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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

Pears
Firm, ripe fruit that becomes tender and holds its shape when simmered in syrup.
Sugar
Sweetens the dish and, as the syrup reduces, thickens it into a coating.
Dried ginger root
Adds warm, spicy aroma and flavor to the syrup.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet syrup and balances its sweetness.
Lemon rind
Adds fragrant citrus oil to the syrup for aroma.

The step that matters

Soak the pears in acidulated water. Cut pear flesh oxidizes and browns quickly when exposed to air. The vinegar in the cold water slows this reaction, keeping the pears pale until they go into the syrup.

Swap the bartlett pear

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

  1. Limefits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Bartlett pearthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, ginger, lemon. 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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