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Dessert

Ripe Pears

A candied confection made from sugar, glucose, water, pear essence, tartaric acid, and colored with yellow and red food dyes.

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

Ripe Pears

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 305°F (152°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the syrup

  1. Melt the sugar in the water over medium heat.

  2. Add the glucose and boil until the mixture reaches 305°F (152°C).

Divide and flavor

  1. Pour the mixture onto a slab and cut it into three equal parts.

  2. Flavor one part with essence of pear and tartaric acid.

  3. Color one part deep red and another deep yellow.

Pull and finish

  1. Pull the third portion over a hook and lay it between the yellow and red pieces.

  2. Cut into convenient sizes and pass through large pear drop rollers.

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. Sugar + peartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Sugar
Forms the main body of the candy and sets into a firm, glassy structure.
Glucose
Inhibits crystallization, keeping the candy smooth and clear rather than grainy.
Essence of pear
Provides the pear aroma and flavor that defines the candy.
Tartaric acid
Adds a sharp, sour bite that balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Boil to 305°F (152°C). The syrup must reach this temperature to set firm when cooled. Stopping early leaves it soft and sticky, while overheating makes it brittle and prone to scorching.

“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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