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Poached Saffron Pears

Try infusing pears with the taste of saffron to make a unique and tasty pudding

By bbcgoodfood · From Open Recipes · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Saffron and star anise share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 25 recipes mention both. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4

Ingredients

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

Directions

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

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. Saffron + star anisetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together25 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + orangetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,833 recipes

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

  3. Saffron + orangetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together184 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Star anise + orangetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together138 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Ginger + star anisetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together229 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the star anise

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

  1. Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
  2. Cloveabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Star anisethe original
  4. Allspiceabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against saffron, sugar, ginger, wine, orange, 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).