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Dessert

Pears a l'Allemande

A dessert of pears poached in a sweet syrup, finished with egg yolk glaze and gelatin set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pear and butter work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 583 recipes. Both carry anethole, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Pears a l'Allemande

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pears

  1. Peel and cut the pears into desired shapes.

  2. Steep them in cold water to prevent browning.

  3. Place the pears in a saucepan and cover with cold water.

Poach

  1. Add butter and enough sugar to sweeten.

  2. Boil until tender.

Glaze and set

  1. Brush the pears with the egg yolk.

  2. Sprinkle with sifted sugar.

  3. Arrange the pears on a dish.

  4. Add gelatin to the syrup.

  5. Boil for 5 minutes.

  6. Strain over the pears.

  7. Let set.

  8. Optionally color the syrup with a little prepared cochineal for better appearance.

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. Pear + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together583 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Pear + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,079 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pears
Form the main body of the dessert and absorb the sweet syrup as they cook.
Butter
Adds richness and a rounder, softer mouthfeel to the poaching syrup.
Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and helps give the pears their glossy finish.
Egg yolk
Brushed on the pears to add a glossy, golden sheen.
Gelatine
Sets the strained syrup so it holds a firm, jelly-like glaze over the pears.

The step that matters

Boil until tender. Pears cook unevenly and can turn mushy if overcooked, while undercooked pears stay hard and chalky. Gentle simmering in syrup keeps the fruit intact while softening its cell walls.

Swap the pear

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Pearthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg. 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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