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Dutch Lunch Box

A Dutch lunch box assembled with sugar, glucose, molasses, coconut, bon bon cream, nuts, opera cream, eggs, almond paste, and pecans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Dutch Lunch Box

12 boxes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the boxes

  1. Line 12 one-pound boxes with wax paper and place them in a clean pan or tray.

Make the syrup and sauerkraut

  1. In a saucepan, cook 1 lb sugar, 2 lbs glucose, 1 pint water, and ⅓ cup molasses to 235°F (113°C).

  2. Remove from heat and stir in enough long-strip coconut until it thickens.

  3. Pour the mixture into a sieve to drain, then place a small bunch in the corner of each box to represent sauerkraut.

Fill the boxes

  1. Mix nut meats into bon bon cream, form small pieces the size of potatoes, roll in cocoa or cinnamon, and place one in each box.

  2. Flatten 1 oz pieces of Opera Cream like veal cutlets, dip in gum arabic solution, roll in roasted coconut, and lay one in each box.

  3. Prepare hard-boiled eggs in their natural shells and place one in each box.

  4. Shape ¼ oz pieces of Opera Cream into frankfurters, shellac them, and place one in each box.

  5. Make pickles from almond paste and place one in each box.

  6. Knead ground pecans into 1 lb bon bon cream, shape into a loaf, slice thinly, and place a slice in each box.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Cocoa + nutstop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together65 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Coconut + nutstop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together142 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Coconut + cocoatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Forms the syrup base that sets into a firm, sweet candy structure.
Glucose
Inhibits crystallisation, keeping the cooked syrup smooth and pliable rather than grainy.
Molasses
Adds depth of flavour and colour to the cooked syrup.
Opera cream
Provides a soft, chewy confection body that is shaped into the box pieces.
Bon bon cream
Serves as the soft fondant-style base that holds the nut and pecan pieces together.
Almond paste
Gives a dense, moist, sweet marzipan texture for the pickle pieces.

The step that matters

Cooking the syrup to 235°F (113°C). Sugar syrup taken to this soft-ball stage sets to the right firmness once cooled. Undercooking leaves it too soft to hold its shape, and overcooking makes it hard and brittle.

Swap the cocoa

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, molasses, coconut, cream, meat, nuts, egg):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Pistachiofits better
  3. Peanutfits better
  4. Cocoathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, coconut, cream, meat, nuts, egg. 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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