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Ginger-spiced Pears

Make and store preserved fruits for a month or so and serve alongside cold meats and cheeses

By bbcgoodfood · From Open Recipes · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and pear match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 440 recipes mention both. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

MAKES 2kg/4lb 8oz
Prep30 min
Cook25 min

Ingredients

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Use a vegetable peeler to pare the zest from the orange in strips, then squeeze the orange and keep the juice.

  2. Put the sugar, white wine vinegar, orange juice, orange zest, sliced ginger, bay leaves and black peppercorns in a large heavy pan. Heat gently, stirring, until the sugar dissolves.

  3. Peel the pears. Halve and core larger ones, and leave small ones whole.

  4. Bring the syrup to a simmer, add the pears, and cook gently for 15 minutes, turning occasionally, until just tender when pierced with a knife.

  5. Lift the pears out with a slotted spoon and pack them into clean, warm jars.

  6. Simmer the syrup for about 10 minutes until slightly thickened, then discard the bay leaves and pour the syrup over the pears to cover them.

  7. Seal the jars and leave to cool. Store in a cool, dark place or the fridge once opened.

By bbcgoodfood. 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.

  1. Ginger + peartop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together440 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  2. Orange + gingertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,833 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. White wine + peartop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together60 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  4. Orange + peartop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together320 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. White wine + vinegartop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,123 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, white wine, vinegar, ginger, pear):

  1. Applebetter flavor fit
  2. Plumbetter flavor fit
  3. Apricotbetter flavor fit
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, white wine, vinegar, ginger, pear. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).