Why it works: Pear and lemon work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 942 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓
Stewed Pears
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare and stew
Pare, halve, and core the pears.
Place them in a covered saucepan with lemon rind, sugar, and enough water to nearly cover the pears.
If desired, add the bruised cochineal for color.
Stew gently for 4 hours or until the pears are perfectly tender.
Flavor and store
Optionally, add wine for flavor.
For storage, place in a covered jar, tie down well, and bake for some hours with liquid and sugar.
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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Pear + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together942 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Pear + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,079 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pears
- Provide the fruit that softens during slow stewing into tender, sweet flesh.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pears and helps form a syrup as the fruit stews.
- Lemon rind
- Adds a bright, aromatic citrus note that balances the sweetness.
The step that matters
Stew gently until perfectly tender. Pears need low, gentle heat over a long time so the cell walls soften evenly without breaking apart or turning mushy. A hard boil can ruin the shape and texture of the fruit.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pear, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Applefits better
- Plumfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pear, sugar. 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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