Skip to main content
Dessert

Mary Kec

An orange basket filled with almond mixture, candied cherries, whipped cream, and violet flowers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Orange and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 28% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,170 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Mary Kec

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the baskets

  1. Form baskets by cutting out a piece of skin on each side of orange, leaving a strip over the top for a handle.

  2. Scoop out the pulp carefully.

  3. Remove the white skin.

Fill and decorate

  1. Mix the pulp with blanched and chopped almonds, add three candied cherries to each orange, and sweeten to taste.

  2. Fill the baskets with the mixture.

  3. Put a spoonful of whipped cream on each basket.

  4. Decorate by piercing a hole through the handle and running stems of two or three violets or other small flowers through.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

200Calories
3 gProtein
6 gFat
37 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Cherry1 cup (138g)87
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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. See the original page.

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. Orange + creamtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,170 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Orange
Forms the edible basket and provides the juicy, aromatic pulp that flavours the filling.
Blanched almonds (in the method)
Add a crunchy, nutty texture to the pulp filling.
Candied cherries
Add concentrated sweetness and a chewy texture to the filling.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and a light, creamy topping that softens the citrus flavour.

The step that matters

Scoop out the pulp carefully. Cutting through the skin wall or tearing the basket makes it unable to hold the filling. Keeping the shell intact and the handle strip uncut lets the basket hold its shape.

“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.

You might also like