Name: Raspberries
Ingredients: 1 small glass of liqueur (noyau); a little saffron; raspberry juice (fresh or preserved); a drop of cochineal (for color); spirits of wine

Why it works: Spirit and wine work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 701 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓

Raspberries

Ingredients

1 small glass of liqueur (noyau)
a little saffron
raspberry juice (fresh or preserved)
a drop of cochineal (for color)
spirits of wine

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 240°F (115°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the mixture

Heat the syrup to 240°F (115°C) or to the ball stage.
Mix in the raspberry juice and cochineal for color.

Set and clean up

Fill the molds with the mixture and let them sit for 12 hours.
Wash the molds with spirits of wine using a brush.

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.

Spirit + winetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together701 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Saffron + winetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together282 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Raspberry + winetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together303 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Saffron + raspberrytop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Saffron + spirittop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together69 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Raspberry juice: Provides the main raspberry flavor and fruity character of the candy.
Cochineal: Adds the red color without changing the flavor.
Liqueur (noyau): Adds a sweet, fruity aroma to the candy.

The step that matters

Heating the syrup to the ball stage. Sugar syrup sets firmer as its temperature rises, because more water evaporates and the sugar concentration increases. Heating to about 240°F (115°C) gives candy that sets firm. Too little heat leaves the candy soft or sticky, and too much makes it hard or brittle.