Name: Bittersweet Chocolate and Pear Cake
Ingredients: 1 cup all-purpose flour; 1 tablespoon baking powder; 1/4 teaspoon salt; 3 eggs, at room-temperature; 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter; 3/4 cup sugar; 3 pears, peeled, in a small dice (I used anjou, but would recommend a softer variety, like a bosc or any other of your favorites); 3/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chunks

Bittersweet Chocolate and Pear Cake

Almost two years ago, Alex and I met friends for dinner at , an always-packed, funky mom-and-pop Italian restaurant in Park Slope that not only doesn’t take reservations, it has no room for you to stand around while you wait for one (unless you go to the adjacent wine bar). It helps to know someone who works there.

By smittenkitchen · From Open Recipes · 8 ingredients

Why it works: Pear and chocolate work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and 99 recipes mention both. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 eggs, at room-temperature
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
3 pears, peeled, in a small dice (I used anjou, but would recommend a softer variety, like a bosc or any other of your favorites)
3/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chunks

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By smittenkitchen. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Pear + chocolatetop 10% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together99 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Sugar + chocolatetop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together15,399 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Flour + buttertop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together122,858 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together118,511 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Flour + eggtop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together104,138 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter share little aroma chemistry, yet 122,858 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

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