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Dessert

French Candy

A sweet confection made with confectioner's sugar, egg whites, water, dates, figs, walnuts, almonds, and optionally melted chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Dates and fig work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 318 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

French Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the candy

  1. Sift the confectioner's sugar.

  2. Mix the sugar with the egg whites and water, stirring well.

  3. Knead the mixture smooth on a board.

Shape and finish

  1. Mould into different forms using dates, figs, walnuts, and almonds.

  2. For chocolate candy, cover the outside with melted chocolate.

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. Dates + figtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together318 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  2. Walnut + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together993 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Fig + almondtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together519 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Fig + walnuttop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together373 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Dates + almondtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together217 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Bind the sugar into a smooth, pliable paste that holds its shape.
Confectioner's sugar
Provides the sweet, dry bulk that the mixture is built from.
Dates
Serve as a filling or form, adding chewy sweetness inside the candy.
Figs
Serve as a filling or form, adding chewy sweetness inside the candy.
Walnuts
Add crunch and a nutty flavor to the shaped candy.
Almonds
Add crunch and a nutty flavor to the shaped candy.

The step that matters

Knead the mixture smooth on a board. Sugar paste that is too dry or unevenly mixed will crack or crumble when shaped. Kneading works the sugar and liquid into an even, pliable dough that holds its form.

Swap the dates

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, fig, walnut, almond, chocolate):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits about as well
  3. Cherryfits about as well
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, fig, walnut, almond, chocolate. 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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