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Dessert

Chop Suey Cream Slice

A sweet slice made from scrap, glucose, assorted nuts, chopped figs, dates, cinnamon, bitter chocolate, and cream tartar fondant.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and dates work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 318 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Chop Suey Cream Slice

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Dissolve the scrap and strain it.

  2. Add the glucose and cook to 246°F (119°C).

Mix and set

  1. Remove from heat and stir in the assorted nuts, chopped figs, dates, cinnamon, bitter chocolate, and cream tartar fondant.

  2. Stir until the mixture is quite thick.

  3. Pour into paper-lined boxes and let set overnight.

  4. Cut into thin slices.

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. Fig + datestop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together318 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  2. Fig + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together614 recipes

    Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).

  3. Dates + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together283 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  4. Nuts + chocolatetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together440 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Glucose
Inhibits sugar crystallization, giving the candy a smooth, tender texture.
Cream tartar fondant
Adds sweetness and a soft, creamy body to the mass.
Bitter chocolate
Adds deep, bitter flavor that balances the sweetness.
Assorted nuts
Add crunch and body against the soft, sticky mass.
Dates
Add natural sweetness, chew and moisture.

The step that matters

Cook the glucose mixture to 246°F (119°C). Cooking sugar syrup to the correct temperature controls its water content. Too little cooking leaves the slices soft and sticky, while overcooking makes them hard and brittle once set.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fig, dates, cinnamon, chocolate, cream):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Walnutfits better
  3. Pecansfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fig, dates, cinnamon, chocolate, cream. 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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