Why it works: Sugar and dates work together. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 985 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Stuffed Dates
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 242°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the syrup
Combine sugar and water in a saucepan.
Boil until it reaches a medium ball stage (242°F).
Pour the syrup onto a clean platter and let it cool.
Make the cream
Once cooled, work the syrup like cream for bonbons or chocolates.
Pit the dates and pinch off small bits of the cooled syrup, rolling them into shapes that fit inside the dates.
Stuff the rolled cream into the dates and press them closed.
Optionally, create different flavors and colors of cream.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Sugar + datestop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together985 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, 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 that sets into a soft, creamy filling when worked.
- Dates
- Serve as the sweet, chewy shell that holds the filling.
The step that matters
Boil the syrup to medium ball stage (242°F). Sugar concentration determines the texture of the filling. Stopping short leaves it runny, while overcooking makes it hard and grainy once worked.
“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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