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Compote of Pears, a LA Victoria

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pear and plum match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 245 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Compote of Pears, a LA Victoria

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Trim and core the pears from the thick end halfway down.

  2. Simmer the pears in light pink syrup to give them a delicate color.

  3. Drain the pears on a napkin.

  4. Fill the interiors of the pears with fresh strawberry jam.

  5. Decorate the pears with mirabelle plums.

  6. Place the pears upright in a serving dish.

  7. Pour some flavored syrup with vanilla around the base.

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 + plumtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Pear + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together334 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Plum + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together171 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Syrup + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Strawberry jam + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together98 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

Swap the strawberry jam

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pear, syrup, plum, vanilla):

  1. Apricotfits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Strawberry jamthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pear, syrup, plum, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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