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Dessert

Fruit Tapioca

A sweet dessert made from pearl tapioca, fruit, and spices, cooked until translucent and served chilled with cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Fruit Tapioca

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the tapioca in cold water overnight.

Cook the tapioca

  1. Add the cinnamon and salt, then cook in a double boiler until transparent.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the cinnamon, add the remaining ingredients, and sweeten to taste.

  2. Mould the mixture, chill, and serve with thin cream.

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. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Almond + raisintop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  4. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Pearl tapioca
Its starch thickens as it cooks, giving the dish its body and set.
Shredded almonds
Adds fat, nutty flavour and a firm, chewy texture.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and fruity flavour, and helps bind the mixture.
Sherry wine
Adds aroma and a mild acidity that balances the sweetness.
Raisins
Add sweetness and a soft, chewy texture.

The step that matters

Cooking the tapioca in a double boiler until transparent. Tapioca starch thickens and the pearls turn clear as they gelatinise. Gentle, indirect heat from the double boiler prevents scorching and sticking, which would give a burnt taste and uneven texture.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sherry, wine, almond, cinnamon, raisin, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sherry, wine, almond, cinnamon, raisin, 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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