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Pickled Pears

A sweet vinegar solution preserves Bartlett pears in jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Pickled Pears

Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Pickled Pears

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine vinegar, sugar, cloves, allspice, mace, and cinnamon in a pot.

  2. Boil the mixture for 30 minutes.

Scald the pears

  1. Add the pears to the boiling mixture.

  2. Scald the pears well.

  3. Remove the pears from the mixture.

Pack and seal

  1. Pack the pears into glass jars.

  2. Boil the syrup down until there is enough to cover the fruit.

  3. Pour the syrup over the pears.

  4. Seal the jars immediately.

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Bartlett pears
Provide the fruit that is softened and flavored by the spiced syrup.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the fruit and gives the pickle its sharp flavor.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the vinegar and helps preserve the fruit.
Whole cloves
Contribute warm, aromatic spice flavor to the syrup.

The step that matters

Seal the jars immediately. Hot fruit and syrup sealed right away form a vacuum as they cool, which helps prevent spoilage. Waiting lets air and microbes enter the jar.

Swap the bartlett pear

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Bartlett pearthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, clove, allspice, mace, cinnamon. 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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