Why it works: Sugar and pear are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,079 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Canned Pears
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
In a pot, combine water and sugar, and heat until the sugar dissolves.
Prepare the pears
Prepare and peel the pears, placing them in a dish of cold water to prevent browning.
Cook and pack
Once the syrup reaches a fast boil, carefully add the pears and boil until tender.
Heat the bottles, pack them with the pears, and cover with the syrup.
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.
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Sugar + peartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,079 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pears
- Provide the fruit, which softens and turns tender as it simmers in the syrup.
- Sugar
- Dissolves into the water to make a syrup that adds sweetness and flavour to the fruit.
The step that matters
Placing peeled pears in cold water. Peeled pear flesh oxidises quickly when exposed to air, turning brown. Keeping the pears submerged in cold water limits contact with air and helps them stay pale until they go into the syrup.
“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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