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Dessert

Almond Pears

A dessert of preserved pears topped with almond strips, sponge cake slices, frosting, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and pear match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 175 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Almond Pears

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almonds

  1. Blanch the almonds and soak them in hot water until soft enough to cut into strips lengthwise.

  2. Stick the almond strips thickly over the preserved pears.

Assemble and serve

  1. Cut the stale sponge cake into thick slices.

  2. Cover each slice with soft white or pale green frosting.

  3. Place a pear in the center of each frosted cake slice.

  4. Arrange on individual plates and add whipped cream around the edge.

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. Almond + peartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together175 recipes

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

  2. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  3. Pear + creamtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together404 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Almonds
Provide a crisp, nutty texture and a decorative covering over the pears.
Preserved pears
Supply the sweet, soft fruit centerpiece of the dish.
Stale sponge cake
Forms the base that holds the frosting and pear, absorbing moisture from the frosting.
Soft white or pale green frosting
Adds sweetness and a soft, creamy layer that helps the pear sit on the cake.
Whipped cream
Adds light richness and a cool, creamy contrast to the sweet fruit and cake.

Swap the pear

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Avocadofits better
  4. Pearthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, cream. 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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