Skip to main content

Italian Confectioner

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Italian Confectioner

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Peel the melons, ensuring the slices are round and avoid the inside.

  2. Soak the slices in cold water, then blanch them like other fruits.

  3. After blanching, place them in cold water again.

  4. Once dried, put the slices in a pan and cover with clarified sugar.

  5. Prepare a light, lukewarm syrup with cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and optional vinegar.

  6. Drain the slices for five days, boiling and skimming the syrup daily.

  7. On the sixth day, boil the syrup until it reaches a blow stage.

  8. Slide the melon slices into the boiling syrup, then remove the pan from heat.

  9. Arrange the slices on gratings, turning them when the surface is dry.

  10. Prepare candy molds filled with syrup and place the melon slices side by side.

  11. Decorate with liqueur drops, sugar bits, gum paste, pistachios, angelica, and vanilla.

  12. Use small knots of ribbon to form nosegays and tie them.

  13. Finish in the stove like other candies for a beautiful presentation.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Pistachio + angelicatop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together36 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + pistachiotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together80 recipes

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

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

Swap the melon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, vinegar, pistachio, angelica):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Melonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, vinegar, pistachio, angelica. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesCinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipesClove CakeClove Cake53 recipesCinnamon CakeCinnamon Cake42 recipes