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Dessert

Stewed Pears

Stewed pears simmered with sugar, lemon peel, cloves, allspice, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Stewed Pears

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pare and halve or quarter the pears, placing them in water to prevent browning.

  2. Pack the pears in a block-tin stew pan and sprinkle with sugar to taste.

  3. Add lemon peel, cloves, and cracked allspice.

  4. Cover the pears with water and add some red liquor if desired.

Stew and serve

  1. Cover the pan tightly and stew for 3 to 4 hours until tender.

  2. Remove the pears and pour the cooking liquid over them.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Lemon + allspicetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,083 recipes

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

  3. Pear + clovetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together512 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Pear + allspicetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together164 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  5. Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Pears
Hold their shape while softening, becoming tender and sweet as they stew.
Sugar
Sweetens the pears and the cooking liquid, adding body to the syrup.
Lemon peel
Adds bright aromatic oils that brighten the sweet, gently spiced syrup.
Cloves
Contribute warm, aromatic spice to the cooking liquid.
Allspice
Adds warm, peppery aroma that complements the fruit and syrup.

The step that matters

Keep the pan tightly covered while stewing. A tight lid traps steam so the pears cook gently in their own liquid. Lost liquid lets the tops dry and darken before the fruit is tender.

Swap the pear

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

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Pearthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, clove, allspice. 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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