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Dessert

Italian Confectioner

A confection of blanched almonds coated in gum and syrup, dried to a firm consistency.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Syrup and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Italian Confectioner

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gum and syrup

  1. Dissolve gum Senegal in water and strain through a silk sieve.

  2. Boil syrup to a strong thread consistency.

  3. Add 2 teaspoons of gum Senegal to the syrup for body.

  4. Place the syrup on a low heat over a charcoal brazier covered with ashes.

  5. Clarify fine loaf sugar in spring water and boil to a strong thread, adding gum in the first charge and gum Arabic or Senegal in the eighth charge.

Coat the almonds

  1. In a comfit pan, add blanched almonds and coat with gum twice, drying well each time.

  2. Add syrup in six increments, increasing the amount each time.

  3. For the eighth charge, mix equal parts gum and syrup.

  4. Rub almonds with your left hand to prevent sticking and continue until desired size is achieved.

  5. Sift every tenth charge to remove sugar dust and wash the pan if it becomes rough.

  6. Ensure each charge is dried well to keep almonds white, maintaining moderate heat.

  7. Once comfits are the right size, transfer to a sieve and dry in the stove overnight.

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. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Syrup + almondtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together746 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Gum senegal
Forms a thin coating on each almond and gives the syrup body.
Blanched almonds
Serve as the centres that the syrup builds up around in layers.
Fine loaf sugar
Forms the sugar syrup that hardens into the outer shell.

The step that matters

Drying each charge well. If a syrup layer is not fully dried before the next is added, moisture gets trapped and the coating can become sticky, dull, or uneven. Moderate heat keeps the sugar from browning and the almonds white.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (syrup, sugar):

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Hazelnutfits about as well
  4. Pistachiofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against syrup, sugar. 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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