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Italian Confectioner

A candied fruit confection made with clarified sugar and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Italian Confectioner

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Examine and prepare each fruit for candying; they must be completely dry.

  2. Arrange the fruits side by side in a nearly square mold with wire gratings.

  3. Layer the second type of fruit on top of the first, continuing until all fruits are arranged.

  4. Cover the last layer with a grating and place a weight on top to keep it firm.

Candy

  1. Place the mold in a 350°F (175°C) oven.

  2. Boil enough clarified sugar to fill the mold, then remove it from heat as soon as it reaches a soft ball stage.

  3. Let the sugar cool, then skim off any candy formed on top.

  4. Pour the cooled sugar into the mold and let it candy undisturbed for 10 to 12 hours.

  5. Afterward, uncork the mold to strain out the excess syrup.

  6. To check the candy's consistency, place small pieces of whisk in the corners of the mold and check them hourly.

Finish

  1. Once drained, turn the candy over to dry completely.

  2. When dry, strike it on a table lined with paper to remove the gratings.

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. Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Pulpy fruits
Make up the body of the candy, supplying the main texture and fruit flavor.
Clarified sugar
Sweetens the candy and sets into a firm coating as it cools and candies.
Cinnamon drops
Add a warm, spiced aroma and flavor to the candy.

The step that matters

Removing the sugar at the soft ball stage. Sugar concentration determines how the candy sets. Removing the syrup too late over-concentrates it, making the candy hard and prone to crystallizing, while removing it too early leaves it too wet to set properly.

“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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