Why it works: Pear and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 320 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the pears
Peel the pears and cut each in half, removing the core.
Blanch the pears while holding them firmly, then drain and place in a bowl.
Cover the pears with orange syrup and let them sit for one hour.
After an hour, drain the pears and insert a small piece of angelica into each for decoration.
Set the pudding
Prepare a mold by coating it with orange jelly, slightly tinted red.
Arrange the pear halves in the mold with the cut side facing inwards and the tails at the bottom.
Fill the mold gradually with more orange jelly until full.
Once set, dip the mold in hot water and invert it onto a cold plate to release.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Pear + orangetop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together320 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Orange + angelicatop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together159 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
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Pear + syruptop 9% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together254 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Pear + angelicatop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together39 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Syrup + angelicatop 11% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together111 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pears
- Provide the fruit body and flavor at the centre of the pudding.
- Orange syrup
- Sweetens and flavors the pears while they soak.
- Orange jelly
- Sets around the pears to hold the pudding's shape when turned out.
The step that matters
Blanch the pears while holding them firmly. Brief blanching softens the pear flesh slightly so it stays intact, while overcooking would make the halves collapse and lose their shape in the mold.
Flavor stand-ins for the angelica
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pear, orange, syrup):
- Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
- Gingerbetter flavor fit
- Clovebetter flavor fit
- Angelicathe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pear, orange, syrup. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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