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Dessert

Pears in Jelly

A dessert of pears set in raspberry jelly and topped with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Pear and raspberry work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 64 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Pears in Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Lay the pears in a crystal dish.

Set the jelly

  1. Dissolve the jelly in 1 pint of warm water (not quite boiling) and pour it over the pears.

  2. Once the jelly has set, pile whipped cream on top.

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 + raspberrytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together64 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  2. Raspberry + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,332 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Pear + creamtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together404 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Pears
Provide the fruit base and sweet flavour that the jelly surrounds.
Raspberry jelly
Sets with the water into a firm wobbly layer that holds the pears in place.
Whipped cream
Adds a light, rich topping that contrasts with the firm jelly.

The step that matters

Dissolving the jelly in warm water. Gelatine or jelly powder must fully dissolve in warm liquid, not boiling, so it sets evenly. Boiling water can weaken the gelling power, and undissolved granules leave a grainy or patchy set.

Swap the pear

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raspberry, cream):

  1. Strawberryfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Pearthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raspberry, cream. 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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