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Dessert

Fruit Roll

A sweet roll made from raisins, figs, candied cherries, pineapple, nuts, sugar, cream, butter, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Walnut and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 993 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Fruit Roll

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit and nuts

  1. Clean the raisins.

  2. Cut the figs into strips.

  3. Halve the candied cherries.

  4. Dice the candied pineapple.

  5. Break the walnuts and hickory nuts into halves.

  6. Blanch the almonds.

  7. Toast the almonds until lightly browned.

  8. Mix all the fruit and nuts together in a bowl.

Make the candy

  1. Butter the inside of a granite saucepan.

  2. Add the sugar and water to the saucepan.

  3. Stir until creamy.

  4. Add the cream and a piece of butter.

  5. Heat gradually to boiling.

  6. Stir constantly until the sugar dissolves.

  7. Boil without stirring until a soft ball forms in cold water.

  8. Remove from heat.

  9. Place the saucepan in a pan of cold water until lukewarm.

  10. Beat until creamy.

  11. Return the mixture to a pan of boiling water.

  12. Stir constantly until melted.

  13. Flavor with vanilla.

Shape and finish

  1. Mix in the fruit and nuts thoroughly.

  2. Mould the mixture into a long, thin roll.

  3. Use a dry napkin to twist the roll in opposite directions.

  4. Let it stand aside for a day or longer.

  5. Cut into thin slices.

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

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

  2. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Fig + pineappletop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together100 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Dissolves and cooks into the candy base that binds the fruit and nuts.
Cream
Adds fat and softness to the candy, giving a creamier texture.
Raisins
Provide moisture and chewy sweetness throughout the roll.
Almonds
Add crunch and toasted, nutty flavor to the roll.
English walnut halves
Add crunch and a rich, slightly bitter nuttiness.
Figs
Add chewy texture and concentrated fruity sweetness.

The step that matters

Boil without stirring until a soft ball forms in cold water. Sugar syrup must reach the right concentration to set firm but stay tender. Stirring can trigger crystallization, which makes the candy grainy, so the mixture is left undisturbed while it boils.

Swap the pineapple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, fig, walnut, almond, sugar, cream, butter):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, fig, walnut, almond, sugar, cream, butter. 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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