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Baked Pears

A baked pear dish simmered in citrus‑infused broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Baked Pears

Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Baked Pears

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. If using small pears, leave them whole and peeled with stalks; for large pears, cut them in halves and core them.

Make the poaching liquid

  1. In a pot, boil the water with the juice of the oranges or lemons, their peel, cloves, and cinnamon for 15 minutes.

  2. Strain the liquid over the pears in a baking dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake the pears in the oven until tender.

  2. Serve warm.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Pear + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together600 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  4. Orange + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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, softening into tender fruit during baking.
Citrus juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the spiced liquid.
Citrus peel
Contributes aromatic oils that flavour the liquid.
Cinnamon
Adds warm aroma to the spiced liquid.
Cloves
Add a strong, warm aroma to the spiced liquid.

The step that matters

Bake the pears until tender. Pears must be baked long enough for the flesh to soften fully, but not so long that they collapse. Judge doneness by a knife or skewer sliding in easily, since the record gives no time for this step.

Swap the pear

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (orange, clove, cinnamon):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Quincefits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Pearthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against orange, clove, cinnamon. 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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