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Tutti-frutti

A fruit preserve made by macerating seasonal fruit in alcohol and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Plum and pear match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 245 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Tutti-frutti

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and add fruit

  1. Combine ½ cup of pure alcohol or brandy in a two-quart glass fruit jar.

  2. Add seasonal fruits as they become available, cutting pineapples into small strips and scooping out orange pulp without seeds or skin.

  3. For every portion of fruit, add an equal amount of sugar.

Macerate and rest

  1. Ensure the jar is tightly closed and reverse or stir the contents every few days with a silver fork.

  2. By Thanksgiving, the juices will have mingled with the alcohol, creating a rich syrup, and the conserve will be ready to use.

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. Plum + peartop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together245 recipes

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

  2. Plum + peachtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together163 recipes

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

  3. Peach + peartop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together114 recipes

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

  4. Pineapple + peartop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together169 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Pineapple + plumtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together147 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methyl-1-butanol (fusel, malty).

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

What each ingredient does

Pure alcohol or brandy
Preserves the fruit and helps extract its juices into a syrup.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and draws out its juices to form the syrup.
Pineapples
Provide tart, fibrous fruit pieces that hold their shape in the syrup.
Oranges
Add citrus acidity and aroma to the mixture.

The step that matters

Keeping the sugar and fruit in equal portions. Sugar in equal weight to the fruit draws out juice and helps preserve the fruit against spoilage. Too little sugar leaves the fruit vulnerable to fermentation and mold, so the ratio should be followed closely.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (brandy, sugar, pineapple, plum, peach, pear):

  1. Apricotfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, sugar, pineapple, plum, peach, pear. 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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