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 ↓
Pear Drops
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Dissolve the sugar in the water in a large pot.
Add the glucose and bring the mixture to the hard crack stage.
Flavour and shape
Pour the mixture onto a slab and add a little red food coloring in one corner.
Turn up the edges of the mixture and add the tartaric acid in a small heap.
Pour the essence of pear over the acid and knead the mixture thoroughly.
When the mixture is stiff enough, cut it into small pieces and pass through pear drop rollers.
Once cooled, sift icing sugar over the drops and store in a bottle.
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.
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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
- White sugar
- Forms the bulk of the candy and sets firm as the syrup cools.
- Glucose
- Inhibits crystallisation, keeping the candy smooth and glassy rather than grainy.
- Tartaric acid
- Adds the sharp, sour bite that balances the sweetness of the candy.
- Essence of pear
- Provides the aroma and flavour that makes the drops taste like pear.
The step that matters
Cooking the syrup to the hard crack stage. Sugar syrup must reach the hard crack stage, a very high temperature, so that once cooled the candy sets hard and brittle. Undercooked syrup stays sticky and soft, and the drops will not hold their shape.
“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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