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Dessert

Glace Nuts and Fruits

A confection of candied nuts and fruits made by drying, boiling sugar syrup, and coating pieces.

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 fruit and nuts

  1. Spread the English 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 Coconut and cook until the syrup reaches a thread consistency.

  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; set aside to dry.

Coat and cool

  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 slab to prevent chilling.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

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

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

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

  5. Pineapple + figtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together100 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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 a sweet, glossy candy coating.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the syrup, helping prevent crystallization for a smoother coating.
English walnut halves
Provide crunchy texture and nutty flavor within the candied coating.
Brazil nuts
Provide crunchy texture and rich flavor within the candied coating.

The step that matters

Work the syrup until cloudy. Stirring or working the syrup against the basin sides encourages fine sugar crystals to form, which turns it opaque and creamy. Skipping this or overworking it changes the texture of the coating.

Swap the lime

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

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

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