Why it works: Pear and sugar 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-syrup or Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Heat pears in a saucepan until the pulp and skins separate from the juice.
Strain the juice and boil it with coarse brown sugar until it thickens to a syrupy consistency.
Serve
Use as a spread on bread.
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 + sugartop 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
- Pears
- Provide the juice that is strained and reduced into the syrup.
- Coarse brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the juice thicken into a syrup as it boils.
The step that matters
Boiling the strained juice with sugar. Boiling evaporates water, so the liquid concentrates and thickens. Stopping too early leaves a thin syrup, while over-boiling can make it too stiff or caramelize.
“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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