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Dessert

Fruit Filling

A sweet fruit filling made with almond paste, butter, sugar, citron, candied orange peel, raisins, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Fruit Filling

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a large bowl, combine the almond paste and butter until smooth.

  2. Add the sugars and mix well.

  3. Finely chop the citron and candied orange peel, then mix with the seeded raisins.

Combine

  1. Combine the fruit mixture with the almond paste mixture, adding water as needed to form a soft paste.

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. Almond + raisintop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Orange + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,684 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 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

Almond paste
Provides the main body and rich, sweet almond flavour of the filling.
Butter
Adds fat that keeps the paste soft and smooth, improving spreadability.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it stay moist and pliable.
Citron
Adds chewy texture and a bright, citrusy flavour.
Candied orange peel
Adds concentrated citrus aroma and chewy bits of texture.
Seeded raisins
Adds chewiness and concentrated natural sweetness.

The step that matters

Adding water as needed. Almond paste and sugar can turn stiff or crumbly when mixed with fruit. Adding water gradually loosens the mixture into a soft, spreadable paste. Too much water, however, can make the filling runny.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, butter, sugar, raisin. 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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