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 ↓
Pear Drops
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
In a preserving pan, combine crushed loaf sugar with enough water to make it drop off the spoon without sticking.
Add essence of jargonel pear and lightly color with prepared cochineal.
Stir the mixture over medium heat until the sugar dissolves and makes a slight noise, but do not let it boil.
Remove from heat just before boiling and continue stirring until thick enough to hold its shape when dropped from a spoon.
If too thin, add more crushed loaf sugar.
Shape and dry
Fill a small drop pan with the mixture and drop it onto a copper plate at regular intervals using a straight wire to separate the drops.
Let the drops sit for about an hour until firm and dry, then detach them with a thin knife and store in a dry place.
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
- Crushed loaf sugar
- Forms the sugar mass that sets firm and dry as the drops cool.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar so it can be cooked into a smooth, workable syrup.
- Essence of jargonel pear
- Provides the pear flavour that scents the finished drops.
- Prepared cochineal
- Lightly colours the mixture without changing its sweetness or set.
The step that matters
Removing the pan just before it boils. Sugar syrup thickens as water evaporates and hardens as it cools. Heating past the right point over-concentrates it, so the drops can turn brittle or crystallise. Stopping early leaves them too soft to hold shape, so the cook must judge the thickness by the spoon test.
“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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