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Dessert

Baked Pears

Pears are baked with sugar, lemon peel, cloves, and allspice until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Baked Pears

Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Baked Pears

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wipe the pears but do not peel them.

  2. Place the pears on a baking sheet.

  3. Sprinkle sugar over the pears to taste.

  4. Add lemon peel, cloves, and cracked allspice.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until tender, about 3 to 4 hours.

  2. Flatten the pears gently with a silver spoon when done.

  3. Transfer the baked pears to a serving dish.

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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Lemon + allspicetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Pear + allspicetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together164 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  5. Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 and soften into a tender, spoonable fruit as they bake.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the pear surfaces caramelize slightly during the long bake.
Lemon peel
Adds bright aromatic oils that offset the sweetness of the pears and sugar.
Cloves
Contribute warm, aromatic spice notes that flavor the pears as they bake.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice notes that complement the pears and cloves.

The step that matters

Bake low and slow until tender. A slow oven lets the pears soften through gradually and concentrate their juices without bursting or drying out. Pulling them too early leaves the flesh firm and the flavors underdeveloped, while overbaking can dry the fruit.

Swap the pear

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

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Pearthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, clove, allspice. 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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