Why it works: Sugar and pear 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 ↓
Barberries Preserved with Pears
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Weigh the barberries and make a syrup with equal weight of sugar and ½ pint of water.
When the syrup is clear, add the barberries and boil for 50 minutes.
Cook the fruit and reduce the syrup
Add the quartered pears to the syrup and boil until tender.
Remove the fruit and boil the syrup for 30 minutes.
Pour the boiling syrup over the fruit.
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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Sugar + peartop 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
- Barberries
- Provide the main fruit flavour and a tart, sharp edge that balances the sugar.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and, as the syrup thickens, helps preserve the fruit.
- Pears
- Form the second fruit, softening with heat and taking on the flavour of the syrup.
The step that matters
Remove the fruit and boil the syrup for 30 minutes.. Once the fruit is out, the syrup can reduce: water evaporates and the sugar concentrates, so it thickens. Leaving the fruit in would overcook it while the syrup thickens.
“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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