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Dessert

Glace Nuts and Fruits

A confection of nuts and fruits candied in a sugar syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Walnut and brazil nut share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 66 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Glace Nuts and Fruits

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the nuts and fruits

  1. Spread the walnut halves, Brazil nuts, cherries, limes, apricots, pineapple, dates, and figs on a tray to dry.

Make the syrup

  1. In a saucepan, combine 3 pounds of sugar and 1 pint of water; bring to a boil.

  2. Add the fresh coconut and cook until the syrup reaches a thread stage.

  3. Remove from heat and work the syrup on the sides of the basin until it becomes cloudy.

  4. Pour the mixture onto a wire sieve over a pan to catch the draining syrup and set aside to dry.

Make the glacé and finish

  1. In another saucepan, cook 6 pounds of sugar, 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar, and 1 quart of water to 280°F (138°C).

  2. Pour the syrup into a deep pan placed on a cold slab to prevent it from dulling.

  3. Dip each piece of nuts and fruits into the syrup one at a time, then place them on the slab to cool.

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. Walnut + brazil nuttop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together66 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Brazil nut + coconuttop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together25 recipes

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

  3. Apricot + figtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together97 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  4. Apricot + pineappletop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together377 recipes

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

  5. Dates + figtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together318 recipes

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

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 hardens into the glossy, crisp glacé coating.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the syrup, helping prevent crystallization so it stays smooth and clear.
Fresh coconut
Adds flavor and texture to the syrup-coated pieces.

The step that matters

Cooking the glacé syrup to 280°F (138°C). Syrup must reach the correct temperature to set into a glossy, brittle coating. Undercooked syrup stays sticky, while overcooked syrup turns grainy or hard. Cream of tartar helps keep the sugar smooth.

Swap the lime

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (walnut, brazil nut, coconut, apricot, pineapple, dates, fig):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Cherryfits better
  3. Bananafits better
  4. Limethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, brazil nut, coconut, apricot, pineapple, dates, fig. 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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