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Dessert

Heavenly Hash

A sweet fruit hash made from gooseberries, currants, raspberries, pineapple, walnuts, raisins, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Red currant and pineapple work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓

Heavenly Hash

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine gooseberries, red currants, red raspberries, chopped pineapple, chopped walnuts, chopped raisins, and sugar in a large pot.

  2. Cook over medium heat until thick, stirring occasionally.

  3. Pour into jelly glasses and let 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. Red currant + pineappletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  2. Walnut + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together647 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Pineapple + walnuttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together465 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  4. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Red currant + walnuttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together31 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and, as it dissolves and cooks down, helps thicken the mixture into a spread.
Gooseberries
Provide tart fruit body and natural pectin that help the mixture set as it thickens.
Red currants
Add tartness and pectin, contributing to the thick, jelly-like texture.
Red raspberries
Add fruity aroma and bulk to the mixture as it cooks down.
English walnuts
Add crunch and a nutty texture that contrasts with the soft fruit.

The step that matters

Cook until thick. Cooking over medium heat with occasional stirring lets water evaporate and the sugar and fruit pectin set the mixture. Stopping too early leaves it runny, while over-cooking can scorch the sugar on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the raisin

The recipe marks raisin as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (red currant, pineapple, walnut, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against red currant, pineapple, walnut, 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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