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Dessert

A Mould of Fresh Fruit

A gelatinous dessert made from fresh fruit juices, sugar, arrowroot, and almonds, set into a mould.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Henrietta Latham Dwight · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Arrowroot and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 179 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

A Mould of Fresh Fruit

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the juice

  1. Take enough fresh, ripe currants and raspberries to make half a cupful of juice of each, press through a fine sieve to retain the seeds; or strain and squeeze through cheese cloth.

  2. Take enough ripe cherries to make a cupful of juice and mix all juices together.

Make the jelly

  1. Put a quart of boiling water in a saucepan over the fire with four ounces of sugar and two ounces of blanched almonds cut fine.

  2. Mix five ounces of arrowroot (or the same quantity of potato flour) with the cold fruit juices, stir into the boiling water and let boil about five minutes.

  3. Turn the mixture into a wet mould and set on ice when cold.

  4. This should be made the day before it is to be served.

Serve

  1. Serve with cream.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

56Calories
0 gProtein
1 gFat
13 gCarbs

Counts 2 of 4 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 2 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7
Arrowrootnot in our table0
Waternot in our table0

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

By Henrietta Latham Dwight. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Arrowroot + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together179 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Sugar + arrowroottop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,073 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Arrowroot
Thickens the juice into a firm, clear jelly when boiled.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the fruit juices.
Fruit juices
Provide the flavour, colour and liquid that the arrowroot sets.
Almonds
Add nutty flavour and a little texture to the jelly.

The step that matters

Stirring the arrowroot into the boiling water. Arrowroot thickens when it is heated in liquid, so the cold juice must be well mixed in first to avoid lumps, and the mixture must boil to fully thicken and set.

“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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