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To Preserve Jargonelle Pears

A method for preserving Jargonelle pears in a ginger‑lemon syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Preserve Jargonelle Pears

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pears

  1. Gather pears with stalks before they are quite ripe.

  2. Pare the pears thinly, keeping the stalks, and cut out the black tops.

  3. Place the pears in cold water.

  4. Line a preserving pan with cabbage leaves.

  5. Add the pears to the pan.

  6. Cover the pears with cold water.

  7. Top with more cabbage leaves.

  8. Boil the pears for 30 minutes.

  9. Transfer the boiled pears to a dish.

Make the syrup and cook the pears

  1. Combine 6 pounds of sugar with 1 quart of water in a pot.

  2. Boil the mixture and skim.

  3. Add the soaked ginger and the juice and rind of the lemons to the syrup.

  4. Boil the syrup for 10 minutes.

  5. Add the pears to the syrup.

  6. Boil for 20 minutes.

  7. Remove the pears and place them in a bowl.

  8. Boil the syrup for an additional 8 minutes.

  9. Let the syrup cool.

  10. Pour the cooled syrup over the pears.

  11. Cover the pears with paper.

  12. Let them sit for 4 days.

Rest and repeat

  1. Pour off the syrup.

  2. Boil the syrup for 8 minutes.

  3. Pour the cooled syrup over the pears.

  4. Let the pears sit for another 4 days.

  5. Repeat the process of pouring off syrup, boiling it, and pouring it over the pears.

  6. Let the pears sit for another 4 days.

  7. Repeat the process a third time.

Finish and jar

  1. Insert a clove into each pear where the black top was cut out.

  2. Transfer the pears to jars.

  3. Divide the ginger and lemon peel among the jars.

  4. Pour the cooled syrup over the pears.

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.

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. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

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

  3. Ginger + cabbagetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together545 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Cabbage + clovetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together933 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 (in the method)
Form the body of the preserve, softening and turning tender as they cook in syrup.
Sugar
Preserves the fruit and sweetens it, thickening the syrup as it cooks down.
White ginger
Adds a warm, spicy aroma that complements the sweet pear flavour.
Lemons
Add acidity and fragrant oils from the juice and rind that brighten the sweet syrup.
Cloves
Add a warm, aromatic spice flavour to the pears.

The step that matters

Repeated syrup boiling and resting. Pouring the syrup off, reboiling it and pouring it back over the pears several times draws sugar into the fruit gradually. Rushing this or skipping a round can leave the pears less sweet and less preserved.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

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