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Dessert

Chop Suey Cream Slice

A dessert made by mixing scrap, glucose, nuts, figs, dates, cinnamon, 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 in water 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 nuts, figs, dates, cinnamon, chocolate, and cream tartar fondant. Stir until the mixture is thick.

  2. Pour the mixture into paper-lined boxes.

  3. Let it set overnight and then 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, keeping the candy smooth and tender rather than grainy.
Cream tartar fondant
Adds sweetness and a soft, creamy body to the set slice.
Bitter chocolate
Adds deep flavor and fat, balancing the sweetness of the fruit and sugar.
Dates
Add moisture, natural sweetness, and chewy body to the mixture.
Nuts
Add crunch and fat, contrasting with the soft, chewy base.

The step that matters

Cook the base to 246°F (119°C). Sugar syrup must reach the target temperature to set firm when cooled. Too little cooking leaves it soft and sticky; too much makes it hard and brittle.

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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