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Dessert

Pear Conserve

A preserve made from chopped pears, sugar, raisins, diced oranges, and nuts, cooked until thickened.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pear and orange work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 323 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Pear Conserve

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the chopped pears, sugar, raisins, diced oranges, and nuts in a large pot.

  2. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture reaches the desired consistency.

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. Pear + orangetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together323 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Raisin + nutstop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together490 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Raisin + orangetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,684 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Pear + raisintop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together46 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Pears
Form the bulk of the preserve and provide its fruity body.
Sugar
Sweetens the preserve and draws water out of the fruit, helping it thicken as it cooks.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and a chewy texture.
Oranges
Contribute acidity and bright citrus aroma that balance the sugar.
Nuts
Add crunch and contrast to the soft fruit.

The step that matters

Cooking until the desired consistency. Sugar-rich fruit mixtures can scorch on the bottom of the pot, so stirring regularly over medium heat matters. As water evaporates and sugar concentrates, the mixture thickens, so stopping too early leaves it runny and cooking too long makes it stiff.

Swap the nuts

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pear, sugar, raisin, orange. 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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