Why it works: Pear and lemon work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 942 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓
Stewed Pears
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pare, cut in halves, and core the pears.
Stew
Place the pears in a covered saucepan with lemon rind, sugar, and enough water to nearly cover them.
If desired, add the cochineal for color.
Stew the pears gently for 4 to 5 hours, or until perfectly tender.
For added flavor, wine can be included.
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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Pear + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together942 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Pear + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,079 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
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 dish, becoming tender and soft as they stew.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the syrup and contributes to the pears' flavor as the liquid reduces.
- Lemon rind
- Adds bright, aromatic citrus flavor to the stewing liquid.
The step that matters
Stew the pears gently. Gentle, low heat over a long time lets the fruit soften evenly and hold its shape. Vigorous boiling can break the pears apart before they become tender.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pear, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Applefits better
- Plumfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pear, sugar. 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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