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Dessert

Cereal Mould

A sweet dessert made from prunes, cooked cereal, corn syrup, and spices, set in a mould.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Cereal Mould

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the prunes

  1. Wash the prunes and soak them.

  2. Cook the prunes until tender, then cool, remove the stones, and cut into small pieces.

Make the mixture

  1. In a double boiler, heat the cereal, corn syrup, salt, and spices until the mixture is smooth.

  2. Add the prunes and mix well.

Mould and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into moulds that have been dipped in cold water and chill.

  2. Serve with a sauce or milk.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Rice + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Rice + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Rice + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Corn + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together647 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Prunes
Add sweetness, moisture and a soft, dense, fruity body to the mould.
Cereal
Provides the starchy body that lets the mould hold its shape when turned out.
Dark corn syrup
Adds sweetness and a smooth, moist texture that keeps the mould tender.
Nutmeg
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet spice aroma.

The step that matters

Dipping the moulds in cold water before filling. A thin film of cold water on the mould surface keeps the set mixture from sticking, so it can be turned out cleanly after chilling.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, corn, syrup, cinnamon):

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Cuminfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, corn, syrup, cinnamon. 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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