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Dessert

Ordinary Jujubes

A sweet candy made from gum arabic, sugar, rose essence, and cochineal.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and rose are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,584 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Ordinary Jujubes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the picked gum arabic in hot water and strain it.

  2. Mix the strained gum arabic with sugar, essence of roses, and prepared cochineal.

Set and dry

  1. Pour the mixture into a clean, smooth tinned baking sheet to a depth of ¼ inch.

  2. Set the baking sheet in a warm place to dry until the surface is somewhat elastic.

Finish

  1. Remove from heat and let it cool completely.

  2. Cut the dried jujube into diamond shapes using scissors.

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. Sugar + rosetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,584 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Gum arabic
Forms the gel-like body that dries into the firm, chewy jujube texture.
Sugar
Provides sweetness and, as it sets, helps give the candy its body.
Essence of roses
Adds the floral aroma that defines the flavour of this candy.
Cochineal
Gives the candy its red colour.

The step that matters

Drying until the surface is somewhat elastic. As water evaporates, the gum arabic and sugar set into a firm, elastic film. Drying too little leaves the candy sticky and hard to cut cleanly, while drying too long makes it brittle.

“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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