Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
Spiced Pears
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the pears
Wipe and cut the pears in half, removing seeds and peeling them.
Stick three cloves into each pear half.
Mix the remaining spices, divide into two parts, and tie in small pieces of cheesecloth.
Make the syrup and steep
Make a syrup by heating the sugar, vinegar, water, spices, and lemon rind until boiling.
Add the pears to the boiling syrup and heat to boiling point again.
Remove from heat and carefully transfer to a stone jar; let stand for 24 hours.
In the morning, drain the syrup from the pears and heat it gradually to boiling.
Pour the hot syrup over the fruit and let it stand for another 24 hours.
Repeat this process for four consecutive days.
Finish
On the last day, cook the syrup down until just enough remains to cover the fruit, then add the pears and heat to boiling point before returning to the jar and covering.
To finish in one day, cook the pears in the syrup until tender, drain, then cook the syrup slowly down to the required amount, add the fruit, and finish as above.
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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Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,536 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,380 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,038 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pears
- Hold their shape as the fruit softens and absorb the spiced syrup over repeated soakings.
- Brown sugar
- Provides sweetness and body to the syrup and helps preserve the fruit.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that sharpens the syrup and balances the sweetness.
- Cloves
- Contribute a warm, pungent aroma that infuses into the fruit.
The step that matters
Cooking the syrup down on the last day. Reducing the syrup to just enough to cover the fruit concentrates its sugar and flavour. If it is over-reduced the sugar can crystallise or scorch, and if under-reduced the pears stay thin and less preserved.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pear, ginger, clove, sugar, cinnamon, vinegar, allspice):
- Quincefits better
- Plumfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pear, ginger, clove, sugar, cinnamon, vinegar, allspice. 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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