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Potato Pears

Mashed potatoes shaped into small pears, coated in egg yolk, studded with cloves, and baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,297 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Potato Pears

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Boil and mash the potatoes until smooth.

  2. Season the mashed potatoes to taste.

Shape and bake

  1. While warm, mold the potatoes into the shape of small pears.

  2. Dip each pear in the beaten egg yolk.

  3. Insert a clove into the small end of each pear to represent the stem.

  4. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

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. Potato + clovetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + clovetop 35% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,584 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

Egg and clove barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,584 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

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the pears and give a soft, moist, pliable body that holds its shape.
Egg yolk
Coats the surface so it browns in the oven, giving a golden color and richer finish.

The step that matters

Shape the potatoes while warm. Mashed potato stiffens as it cools and becomes crumbly, so shaping it warm keeps it smooth and prevents cracks in the pear shapes.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, egg):

  1. Dillfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, egg. 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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