Pear is a fruit with 363 known flavor compounds. The most distinctive molecule is ethyl 3-(methylthio)propanoate. It pairs most strongly with apple, sharing 323 flavor compounds. Pear appears in 2,999 recipes, most commonly in world cuisine.
Fruity esters dominant with floral notes. Green fresh aldehydes. Subtle sweetness.
Compounds ranked by rarity — the higher the score, the more distinctive to this ingredient.
Of the ~226 molecules that drive perceived food aroma (Dunkel et al. 2014), Pear's inventory contains 61. Most of the other 302 compounds are below detection threshold.
+ 49 more — showing top 12 by class and threshold.
Generalist = appears in >25% of foods (Maillard / fermentation products). Individualist = appears in <5% of foods (carries signature notes). Threshold values are in clean water — the actual perception threshold in a food matrix can differ substantially.
How Pear's 363 known compounds break down by aroma category. Percentages are of compounds with a known label.
111 of 363 are distinctive to pear — they appear in under 10% of foods. The remainder are the background most foods share.
Ordered by measured impact in pear — concentration against odour threshold where both are published, then by how distinctive the molecule is across the graph. Molecules measured here but not established as odorants sit below those that are.
Ranked by median concentration across published studies. Only 7 of Pear's 363 compounds have a measured concentration in the literature — the rest are confirmed present but not yet quantified. Bars are log-scaled.
Ranked by how often cooks actually use them together, across 453,403 recipes — the familiar answer first. Each pairing still carries its molecular score and shared-compound count; only the ORDER differs. Counts cover every characterised molecule the two ingredients have in common, not only the aroma-active ones, so they can exceed an ingredient’s aroma-compound count. For the chemistry-first view — where the surprising pairings live — see the molecular network below, the side-by-side comparison, or the Pairing Tool.
Pear and its 10 closest compound-sharing relatives. Spoke thickness = shared compounds; circle size = that ingredient's own compound count. Drag to rearrange, scroll to zoom, click to open.
Compare Pear side-by-side
Drawn from PubMed + Europe PMC + food-science journals. Click any title to read the full abstract on the original source.
Red pear is popular due to its bright colors and nutritional benefits. At present, there are few studies on the difference in quality characteristics between European and Asian red... Read abstract →
Both chitosan (CTS) and chitooligosaccharide (COS) can promote fruit healing. However, whether the two chemicals regulate reactive oxygen species (ROS) homeostasis during wound hea... Read abstract →
In our study, we demonstrated that histone acetylation promotes anthocyanin accumulation in pears by affecting the expression of key genes. Color is an important trait of horticult... Read abstract →
This study aimed to compare the effects of chitosan (CTS) and chitooligosaccharide (COS) treatments on wound healing of pear fruits and to investigate the related mechanisms during... Read abstract →
Fungal pathogens use plant surface physiochemical signals to trigger specific developmental processes. To assess the role of phospholipase C (PLC) in mediating plant stimuli sensin... Read abstract →