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Dessert

A Mould of Pears

A molded dessert of pears cooked with water, cloves, sugar, raisin wine, lemon, and gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pear and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 512 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

A Mould of Pears

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the pears

  1. Peel and quarter the pears.

  2. Place the pears in a pan with water, cloves, and sugar.

  3. Cover the pan and cook in a 400°F (200°C) oven until the pears are tender.

Set the mould

  1. Dip a plain mold in cold water.

  2. Once the pears are done, place them in the mold.

  3. In a pan, combine ½ pint of the pear juice, raisin wine, lemon peel, lemon juice, and gelatine.

  4. Simmer the mixture for 6 to 8 minutes.

  5. Strain the liquid over the pears and allow to cool.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Clove + raisintop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Pear + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together223 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  5. Pear + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together942 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Pears
Form the body of the mould and provide the fruit flavour and soft texture.
Gelatine
Sets the strained liquid so the mould holds its shape when cooled.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the poaching liquid and adds flavour to the pears.
Raisin wine
Adds a fortified, fruity flavour to the setting liquid.

The step that matters

Simmer the gelatine mixture gently. Gelatine must be fully dissolved without boiling hard; excess heat can weaken its setting power, so the mould may not hold its shape when cooled.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Quincefits better
  2. Applefits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pear, clove, sugar, wine, 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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