Why it works: Sugar and rose are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,584 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Ordinary Jujubes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the jujube paste
Soak the gum arabic in hot water and strain it.
Mix the strained gum arabic with sugar, rose essence, and cochineal.
Pour the mixture into a clean, smooth tin baking sheet to a depth of 1/4 inch.
Dry and cut
Set the baking sheet in a warm place to dry until the surface is somewhat elastic. Remove from heat. Let it cool.
Cut the dried jujube into diamond shapes with scissors.
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.
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Sugar + rosetop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,584 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Gum arabic
- Forms the gel structure that sets the candy and gives it a chewy, elastic texture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and bulk, and helps the candy set firm and hold its shape.
- Hot water
- Dissolves the gum arabic so it can be strained and mixed evenly into the candy.
The step that matters
Drying until the surface is somewhat elastic. Drying too little leaves the candy sticky and soft, while drying too long makes it brittle. The surface should be only somewhat elastic so the pieces cut cleanly and keep their chew.
“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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